Daiichi Sankyo case: Supreme Court summons Singh brothers on March 14

SC observed it would like to hear the Singh brothers to know their explanation of the various undertakings they had given to Daiichi Sankyo

The Supreme Court on Tuesday summoned former promoters of Fortis Group Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh to court and asked them to be present during the next hearing on March 14. The court observed it would like to hear the Singh brothers to know their explanation of the various undertakings they had given to Daiichi Sankyo and why they had not followed them.

The observations by the top court came in a petition moved by Daiichi Sankyo seeking to stop stake sale of Fortis Hospital to IHH Healthcare Berhad, Malaysia.  On December 14, 2018, the top court had stayed the stake sale of Fortis Hospital to IHH Healthcare Berhad, Malaysia. This stay would continue to remain in place until next date of hearing, a three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said.

In July, the board of directors of Fortis Healthcare had approved a proposal from IHH Healthcare to invest Rs 4,000 crore by way of preferential allotment for a 31.1 per cent stake. Though Fortis had later moved the top court seeking to vacate the stay, claiming great prejudice, the top court had refused to entertain the plea.

In its plea, Fortis Healthcare had in its plea reiterated that neither Malvinder Mohan Singh nor Shivinder Mohan Singh held a significant number of shares in the company enough to affect any decision-making process.

Daiichi Sankyo has also moved a contempt petition against Singh brothers and Indiabulls, alleging they had created fresh encumbrances for nearly 1.7 million shares of the total 2.3 million shares despite the top court’s order against the same. Of these, while Indiabulls had created encumbrances for 1.2 million shares, the rest had either been created by Singh brothers or third parties.