The Delhi high court on Monday barred brother Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, former controlling shareholders of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd, from selling or mortgaging their assets. The court order will be effective till 26 February, the next date of hearing of a plea for execution of the Rs3,500 crore arbitration award passed by a Singapore tribunal against Singh brothers and 12 others. The arbitral award was held to be enforceable by the high court on 31 January. “Maintain status-quo with respect to the assets till the next date of hearing,” justice Jayant Nath said. The award had found Singh brothers and others guilty of making false claims in an e-self-assessment report and of fraudulently misrepresenting and concealing the “genesis, nature and severity of the US regulatory investigations” of Ranbaxy when Daiichi Sankyo bought a 34.82% stake for $2.4 billion in 2008. The total deal value was $4.6 billion. Counsels appearing for Daiichi Sankyo argued before the court that execution proceedings were no mercy proceedings and prayed for an order restraining the brothers from siphoning off their assets. On 16 February, the Supreme Court had rejected an appeal by the brothers against the order of the Delhi high court allowing Daiichi to recover the award from them. Supreme Court had passed a similar order against the Singh brothers in August 2017 directing them to maintain the status quo in terms of shares held by the brothers in Fortis Healthcare Ltd. An embargo was also imposed on sale of Fortis shares by Axis Bank Ltd, Yes Bank and RBL Bank Ltd with whom the brothers had pledged Fortis shares. The stay on sale of Fortis shares pledged with the banks before 31 August, was lifted by the Supreme Court on 15 February 2018.