Daiichi versus Ranbaxy: Singapore SC allows Harish Salve to represent the case

New Delhi: The Singapore Supreme Court has allowed the Indian lawyer Harish Salve to represent the Singh brothers Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh in the Ranbaxy-Daiichi arbitration case.

This is the first time an Indian lawyer has been allowed to fight a case in Singapore. Singapore’s Court of Appeal has allowed Salve to appear “on behalf of the majors and the minors for the Singapore award challenge proceedings”, a spokesperson for RHC Holding Pvt Ltd, the Singhs’ holding company, told ET.

Medical Dialogues team had earlier reported that the Singapore Supreme Court had disallowed senior advocate Harish Salve from appearing on behalf of corporate sellers of Ranbaxy against the case filed by the Daiichi Sankyo for not revealing risks involved in the buyout by Ranbaxy owners.

Earlier, the arbitration court in Singapore directed former promoters of Ranbaxy laboratories Ltd, Malvinder Mohan Singh, and Shivinder Mohan Singh to pay damages worth Rs.2,562.78 crore to Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd.

Read also: Singapore SC Disallows Harish Salve to represent Ranbaxy Owners in Daiichi Case

The court now allowed Harish Salve for the “Special qualifications or experience for the purpose of the case."

The judge also held that the evidence on Indian law pertaining to the case was not unusually complex or difficult “so as to be beyond the competence of local counsel”, and that allowing foreign counsel to argue in cases where foreign law was to be proved would set an “undesirable precedent," reports Bar and Bench

The Singh brothers are challenging the Daiichi's an arbitration tribunal award case in which the Singapore court had directed former promoters of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, Malvinder Mohan Singh, and Shivinder Mohan Singh to pay damages worth Rs.2,562.78 crore to Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd for information regarding wrongdoing at Ranbaxy at the time of the sale.

Read Also: Ex-Ranbaxy owners to pay Rs 2,600 Crores to Daiichi for concealing facts

“This is the first case of an Indian counsel representing in Singapore Court, otherwise it is only local lawyers or Queen’s Counsel who have been allowed,” a lawyer in Singapore courts told ET

The Court is now expected to fix a date for hearing the case, which was earlier due to come up in November