 "Shivinder M Singh, vice-chairman, Fortis Healthcare")
Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing on behalf of the respondents, assured the court that the declarations of the other respondents (apart from Malvinder Singh, who has already filed his declaration) were ready to be filed, but could not be submitted due to certain procedural constraints. Salve though, also raised concerns over the November 4 order, whereby the respondents were asked to file the asset declarations, as in his opinion the wording of the direction was capable of misuse and could allow Daiichi to use its contents in any 'inter-party' proceedings.
"The enforcement of the award is in this court. The applicants cannot be allowed to take these declarations to other foreign jurisdictions. It is the foreign court's job to pass similar orders if necessary. I am worried about such carte blanche (complete freedom to act) orders," said Salve in Monday's proceedings before Justice Muralidhar of the high court.
Questioning Daiichi's veracity at attempting to obtain the declarations before continuing with the actual proceedings, Salve submitted that the respondents, who were in charge of several large companies could not afford to become defaulters. "These declarations have no association with the main matter; let's get on with the real dispute," remarked Salve.
Shivinder Singh and the other respondents are now expected to submit their declarations to court in sealed envelopes within three days, starting on Monday. The applications in the matter, including the application for modification of the earlier order shall be considered on Feb 1, 2017 and main arguments will be heard from March 27, 2017 onwards.
The international arbitral award against the respondents, relates to Daiichi's purchase of a majority stake in Ranbaxy in 2008. Daiichi had alleged the concealment and misrepresentation of critical information by the Singh brothers, costing the former over $500 million in penalties.
