Supreme Court Adjourns Vijay Mallya's Sentence Hearing In Contempt Case For Next Week

The Supreme Court on Thursday adjourned for next week sentence hearing in contempt case against fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya who was found guilty of contempt in 2017 for disobeying court's order for not disclosing full particulars of assets in case between SBI and Kingfisher Airlines.

The matter was listed before the bench of Justices UU Lalit, SR Bhat and PS Narasimha.

On February 10, 2022 the Top Court, while giving last opportunity to Mallya to appear, had expressed a clear intention to go ahead with the sentence hearing in the contempt case against him.

Earlier on 30th November 2021, the Bench had expressed a clear intention to go ahead with the sentence hearing in the contempt case. The Court had stated that even if Mallya - who is now in the United Kingdom from where the India Government is trying to extradite him- is not present before the Court on the day of hearing for any reason, it will hear the counsel on his behalf. The Court also appointed Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta as an amicus curiae to assist it in the matter.

On an earlier occasion, the Court had rejected the request made by Advocate EC Agarwala seeking his discharge as Mallya's counsel in the case. The observation was made after a statement of the Ministry of External Affairs was furnished to the bench.

In the statement, the Deputy Secretary (Extradition) Ministry of External Affairs stated that the proceedings for extradition have attained finality and Vijay Mallya has exhausted all avenues of appeal in United Kingdom .

"However, Para 3 & 4 of the statement deal with certain proceedings which are stated to be confidential and no details are being disclosed," the bench had noted in the order.

On August 31, the Supreme Court had directed the Ministry of Home Affairs to facilitate and ensure the presence of fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya before the court, for hearing on sentence in the 2017 contempt case against him.

In October 2020, the Centre had informed the Supreme Court that "secret" extradition process was going on to bring fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya to the country but it was not aware about its status. The Centre had also told the top court that it was not a party to the proceedings.

A bench of Justices U U Lalit and Ashok Bhushan had asked Mallya's lawyer to inform the court what kind of "secret" proceedings are going on to extradite him.

The bench also directed Mallya's lawyers to apprise it by November 2 when can the fugitive businessman appear before the court and when the "secret" proceedings are going to end.

The apex court had earlier directed Mallya to appear before it on October 5 while dismissing his plea seeking review of the 2017 verdict which held him guilty of contempt for transferring USD 40 million to his children in violations of court orders.

Mallya, an accused in bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines, is in the United Kingdom. The apex court's 2017 order had come on a plea by consortium of banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI), which had said that Mallya had allegedly transferred USD 40 million received from British firm Diageo, to his children in "flagrant violation" of various judicial orders.

It was dealing with pleas of lending banks seeking contempt action and a direction to Mallya to deposit USD 40 million received from offshore firm Diageo respectively.

The banks had then alleged that Mallya concealed the facts and diverted the money to his son Siddharth Mallya and daughters Leanna Mallya and Tanya Mallya in "flagrant violation" of the orders passed by the Karnataka High Court.

Mallya had in May last year lost his application seeking leave to appeal his extradition to India in the UK Supreme Court. He has been based in the UK since March 2016 and remains on bail on an extradition warrant executed three years ago by Scotland Yard on April 18, 2017.

Case Title: State Bank of India vs Kingfisher Airlines

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