The Supreme Court on Thursday gave former Fortis promoters, Manvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh, two weeks to think about their plans to pay Rs 3,500 crore to Daiichi Sankyo as part of an arbitration award passed against them by a Singapore tribunal. The Singh brothers appeared before a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi in a case filed by the Japanese drugmaker to explain the sale of Fortis Healthcare to IHH and the arbitration award case. During the hearing, senior lawyer Fali S Nariman, who was representing Daiichi, said that while Malvinder claimed he was trying to pay off all debts, Shivinder had become a ''sadhu" (a sage).

"It is not about individual honour but it doesn't look good for the country's honour. You were the flag bearers of the pharmacare industry and it doesn't look good that you are appearing in court," the bench, also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna, said. The bench further asked the Singh brothers to appear before it on March 28 and submit the payment plan. The bench said that "hopefully it will be the last time you are appearing in the court".

Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh had lost an appeal filed before a Singapore court in Daiichi Sankyo arbitration case in December 2018 where they had argued against the $500 million (Rs 3,500 crore) arbitration award against them. The High Court of Singapore had dismissed the plea to stay a Singapore tribunal arbitration award in favour of Japanese pharmaceutical major and reserved its verdict.

Back in 2016, the Singapore International Arbitration Centre had ordered the Singh brothers to pay $500 million for concealing information about alleged suppression of facts at Ranbaxy Laboratories when its shares were sold to Daiichi Sankyo for $4.6 billion in 2008. The case involved some 20 Ranbaxy shareholders who had sold a controlling stake in the multi-national pharmaceutical company to Daiichi.

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