NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court of Singapore has disallowed senior advocate Harish Salve from appearing before it on behalf of corporate sellers of Ranbaxy , who are seeking to set aside an award in excess of $500 million by a local arbitration panel to purchaser Daiichi for not revealing the risks involved in the buyout.Salve, in the first such application made by a senior advocate from India, made an application to the Singaporean Supreme Court seeking to argue against the award on the behalf of the sellers. He has appeared earlier for the sellers in the Delhi High Court.Former Ranbaxy promoters Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh are accused of concealing information regarding wrongdoing at Ranbaxy when they sold a majority stake in it to the Japanese firm in 2008. The sellers are seeking to have the award either set aside or a reduction in the quantum, in appeal. Daiichi, on the other hand, has applied to the court to have the award enforced.Salve filed an application in the top court seeking exemption from a Singapore law which bars foreign lawyers from appearing in local courts unless the court felt a “need” for his assistance considering his special qualifications or experience. He also mentioned his ample experience in this field to argue for an exception to be made in this case.But the Singapore Supreme Court in a decision on February 17, 2017, refused to allow him to appear citing several reasons for this.Among other things, the court said that no questions of Indian law were involved at this stage. Even at an earlier stage when issues related to the Indian law had arisen, the sellers had employed senior counsel from Singapore, the court noted, and only led evidence from Indian law experts to defend their cases.The court also said that foreign lawyers could be allowed in specific cases, but observed the party seeking to engage them has to first prove that such law was involved in the case, before pressing for counsel from that country. The court imposed a $8,000 costs before dismissing the application, but the costs would be paid by the true party who stood to benefit from the application, not Salve.