Supreme Court dismisses appeal against Daiichi Sankyo by Singh brothers on enforcement of 3,500 crore arbitral award

The Supreme Court yesterday dismissed in limine, an appeal filed by former Ranbaxy CEO Malvinder Singh and his brother Shivinder Singh against Daiichi Sankyo in relation to enforcement of a foreign arbitral award to the tune of Rs. 3,500 crore..A Bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and R Banumathi refused to interfere with the judgment of the Delhi High Court which had allowed enforcement of the foreign arbitral award passed in 2016 against the Singh brothers..The Supreme Court observed that the reasoning of the Arbitral Tribunal cannot be interfered or faulted with and held that it was not inclined to interfere with the verdict of the High Court..On April 29, 2016, an award was issued by the Singapore International Arbitral Centre. The award was issued by an arbitral tribunal comprising of Karyl Nairn, Justice AM Ahmadi (Retd.) and Prof. Lawrence GS Boo..The dispute stems from a Share Purchase and Share Subscription Agreement (SPSSA) signed in 2008 whereby Daiichi had agreed to purchase the entire stake of the Singh brothers in Ranbaxy for Rs. 198 billion..Daiichi Sankyo had purchased a majority stake in Ranbaxy for $4.8 billion in 2008. The tribunal found that certain important facts and information relating to Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited were concealed by the Singh brothers. The Arbitral Tribunal granted Rs. 3,500 crores with interest as damages to Daiichi..Daiichi moved the Delhi High Court seeking enforcement of the arbitral award in India. This was contested by the Singh brothers on the ground that the arbitral award passed by the Singapore tribunal could not be enforced in India as it does not comply with the provisions of the Indian arbitration laws. The Delhi High Court upheld the enforcement of the arbitral award in India on January 31, 2018, which led to the appeal in Supreme Court..The Supreme Court in its order yesterday stated,.“We are not inclined to interfere. The Special Leave Petitions are accordingly dismissed. Consequently, all applications are also disposed of.”.Senior advocates Harish N Salve and Dushyant Dave appeared and argued for the Singh brothers while Daiichi Sankyo was represented by Senior Advocates Gopal Subramanium, Arvind P Datar, Mukul Rohatgi and Krishnan Venugopal. They were briefed by a team from P&A Law Offices led by Managing Partner Anand S Pathak and Partner Amit Kumar Mishra and comprising Principal Associate Akshat Hansaria, Senior Associates Abhijeet Sinha and Mohit Singh and Associates Akshay Puri, Samridhi Hota, Shivam Pandey and Shruti Arora..Read the order below.