The Supreme Court on Monday allowed former Fortis promoter Malvinder Mohan Singh to withdraw 50% of his pension from his attached bank account.
A bench while issuing notice to the Japanese pharma giant Daiichi Sankyo said that Singh would be allowed to withdraw half of his pension received from Daiichi and Sun Pharmaceuticals subject to he giving an undertaking that he will repay the entire amount if he loses the case finally.
As a part of a 2008 deal, Singh had been receiving around Rs. 41 lakh per quarter as pension since May 2009, first from Daiichi and later from Sun Pharma. As of now, his pension is due since August last year.
The Delhi High Court had earlier in July dismissed Singh’s plea seeking permission to operate his bank account to the extent of the pension received by him, as the same was exempted under Section 60(1)(g) of the Code of Civil Procedure from attachment.
The pension, Singh had said in his plea, was being received even after Daiichi assumed control of Ranbaxy.
Daiichi is pursuing the enforcement of Rs. 3,500-crore arbitration award against the Singh brothers pronounced by a Singapore tribunal for concealing information regarding wrongdoing at Ranbaxy Laboratories while selling to it for $4.6 billion in 2008.
To secure the award, the high court had ordered freezing of the accounts of both the brothers. The said pension was being received in one such frozen bank account.
The Supreme Court on November 15 had held former Ranbaxy promoters Malvinder and Shivinder Mohan Singh guilty of contempt for violating its earlier orders that had restrained them from divesting their shares in Fortis Healthcare. However, it gave them one more chance to purge themselves of the contempt if each of them deposited Rs. 1,170.95 crore within eight weeks. It also said that Singhs would be heard later on the quantum of sentence.
Both the brothers are in Tihar jail in the case filed by Religare FinVest (RFL) — an arm of Religare Enterprises(REL) — for allegedly causing wrongful loss worth Rs. 2,397 crore.
