Supreme Court upholds forensic audit in Fortis-Daiichi case

what happened

India's Supreme Court on Friday rejected appeals from DCB Bank and UBS Management Services India against a Delhi High Court directive for a forensic audit of dealings linked to hospital operator Fortis Healthcare (FHL), according to TradingView. The directive stems from an arbitration dispute involving Daiichi Sankyo.

The bench, headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant, said the audit ordered on August 31 covers only transactions between FHL, its parent Fortis Healthcare (FHHPL) and former owners Malvinder and Shivinder Singh. The court described the banks' role as secondary and supportive, not an open-ended probe of their business.

The banks argued that Daiichi did not seek an audit of them, that they had neither enforced pledges nor sold shares, and that they were not parties to the 2016 arbitral award. Earlier, on September 29, the court had dismissed similar appeals from YES Bank and Axis Bank.

why it matters

For markets, the ruling is mainly a legal matter: it narrows the scope of the review and clears up uncertainty about the banks' role in the case. The text does not point to major consequences for the banks' shares or Fortis, but the case keeps investors' attention on share pledges within the Fortis group.

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