The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked businessmen Malvinder Singh and Shivender Singh to be present in court on March 14 in connection with a plea by Japanese drug maker Daiichi Sankyo seeking Rs 3,500 crore from them.

"The Court would like to have the personal presence (of Malvinder Singh and Shivender Singh), along with their affidavits on the next date fixed (March 14)", the bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Navin Sinha and Justice Sanjiv Khanna said in their order.

The court ordered the presence of two brothers, who are logger-heads, with each other on a plea by the Japanese drug maker which is seeking the enforcement of Singapore-based arbitration tribunal's award asking the two and other family members to pay it Rs 3,500 crore in a dispute related to Daiichi's acquisition of their family pharma company Ranbaxy.

The court also indicated that it may lift the corporate veil to ascertain the truth.

Senior counsel Fali Nariman, appearing for the Japanese firm, said that the brothers have sold their stakes in Fortis Health Care to Malaysia's IHH Health and were also liquidating their other assets to escape the liability to pay Rs 3,500 crore to Daiichi.

However, it was contended by the other side that the stakes were not sold by two warring brothers but by the company and they were, in no way, beneficiaries of the sale of assets.

--IANS

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