For violation of court orders on July 11, the Supreme Court will pronounce the sentence of fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya for contempt of court.
The bench comprising of Justice U U Lalit, Justice S Ravindra Bhat and the Justice PS Narasimha observed and has reserved the orders on the sentence on March 10. The proceeding was heard in the absence of Mallya, who has absconded to the United Kingdom. Earlier, the court was informed by the Union Of India that though extradition of Mallya from the United Kingdom has been allowed, Mallya could not be brought to India in view of some “secret” proceedings pending against Mallya there and the details of which are not known to the Union Government.
It was observed that although the Court deferred the sentence hearing few times to give an opportunity to Mallya to appear and the court ultimately decided to proceed in his absence in view of his refusal to appear. As an amicus curiae, Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta was appointed in the case to assist the court in the in absentia hearing.
In 2017, Mallya was found guilty for transferring USD 40 million to his children in violation of the orders passed in a case filed by the State Bank of India.
An accused, Mallya in bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines, is in the United Kingdom.
On a plea, the apex court’s 2017 order had come by consortium of banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI), which had said that Mallya had allegedly transferred USD 40 million to his children in “flagrant violation” of various judicial orders, received from British firm Diageo.
It was observed that it was dealing with the petitions of lending banks seeking contempt action and a direction to Mallya to deposit USD 40 million received from offshore firm Diageo respectively.
It had been alleged by the bank that in an order passed by the Karnataka High Court that Mallya concealed the facts and diverted the money to his son Siddharth Mallya and daughters Leanna Mallya and Tanya Mallya in “flagrant violation”.