Apex court asks Mallya to respond to banks' plea on $40m transfer

The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked defunct Kingfisher Airlines-promoter Vijay Mallya to reply to a plea made by a consortium of banks for depositing $40 million to the apex court.

The banks, led by SBI, through senior advocate Shyam Divan, contended that Mallya, in violation of the Karnataka High Court orders passed on November 13, 2013, had transferred the money received from British liquor major Diageo to his children’s
accounts.

A bench of Justices Kurian Joseph and A M Khanwilkar directed senior advocate C S Vaidyanathan, appearing for Mallya, to respond to the request made by the banks within three weeks.

In his submission, Divan contended that the company was in flagrant violation of the high court order as well as that of the Debt Recovery Tribunal, which restrained the company and its promoter from alienating and transferring any moveable and immoveable property.

Mallya, living in the United Kingdom for the past 10 months, had transferred substantial amounts to the accounts of his three children, who are citizens of the USA, he claimed.

Divan also said that Mallya did not make full disclosure of his assets and properties, despite very specific orders from the apex court on April 7, 2016.

Vaidyanathan countered his plea, claiming that the banks had gone far beyond their initial prayer of the repayment of the Rs 6,200-crore loan amount by filing an additional affidavit on December 10.

The court posted the matter for February 2.