A Bench led by Justice Hima Kohli while setting aside a Delhi High Court 2019 order that refused to grant permission to Singh to operate and withdraw his pension from the attached bank account. “…moneys received as pension and credited into the account of an ex-employee will not lose the colour of pension and will remain free from attachment,” the apex court said while noting that both Daiichi and Sun Pharma were aware of the special treatment given to Singh that enabled the latter to receive pension even after resigning from Ranbaxy after 10 years of serving as the chief executive officer.
The amount received by Singh would remain exempt from attachment under Section 60(1)(g) of the Code of Civil Procedure, Justice Kohli ordered, rejecting Daiichi’s objection in this regard. As part of a 2008 personnel deal, Singh had been receiving nearly 41 lakh every quarter as pension since May 2009, first from Daiichi and later from Sun Pharma, which acquired Ranbaxy Laboratories from the Japanese firm in 2014 in a share-swap deal.
Earlier, the SC had in 2019 allowed Singh to withdraw 50% of his pension from his attached bank account subject to him giving an undertaking that he will repay the entire amount if he loses the case finally.
The pension, Singh had said in his plea, was being received even after Daiichi assumed control of Ranbaxy.
Daiichi is pursuing the enforcement of a 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 former Ranbaxy promoters Malvinder and Shivinder Mohan Singh. The said pension was being received in one such frozen bank account.The Supreme Court in November 2019 held both the brothers 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.
(You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel)
