On Thursday (6th August) the Supreme Court said that the hearing of the petition filed by businessman Vijay Mallya, seeking review of its 2017 order holding him guilty of contempt of court for transferring $40 million to his children will be held on 20th August. The matter came up for hearing through videoconferencing before a bench consisting of Justice U U Lalit and Justice Ashok Bhushan, where it was adjourned as one of the documents was not available on the record.
In June 2020, the top court had directed its registry to explain the reason behind Mallya’s review petition not being listed before the concerned court for the last three years. The registry was asked to furnish all the details including names of officials who dealt with the file concerning the review petition in the last three years.
Mallya had filed the petition seeking review of the apex court's order dated 9/05/2017 under which he was held guilty of contempt of court for transferring USD 40 million to his children violating the order. The businessman is an accused in a bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines and is in the United Kingdom presently.
The apex court had passed the 2017 order on a plea by a consortium of banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI), where it was said that Mallya had transferred USD 40 million received from British firm Diageo to his children, violating various judicial orders, allegedly.
The pleas of lending banks seeking contempt action and a direction to Mallya to deposit USD 40 million received from offshore firm Diageo respectively were being dealt with. The banks had alleged that Mallya concealed the facts and diverted the money to his son Siddharth Mallya and daughters Leanna Mallya and Tanya Mallya in violating the orders passed by the Karnataka High Court.
In May 2020, Mallya lost his application seeking leave to appeal his extradition to India in the UK Supreme Court, setting a 28-day clock on his removal from the UK. The decision of the top court of UK marks a big legal setback to the 64-year-old flamboyant businessman. He had also lost his high court appeal against an extradition order to India on charges of alleged fraud and money laundering related to unrecovered loans to his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.
Mallya 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 18th April 2017.
