SC rejects Vijay Mallya's review plea in contempt case

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a review petition filed by fugitive industrialist Vijay Mallya against his conviction in a contempt case in 2017.

A bench of Justices U U Lalit and Ashok Bhushan found no merit in the plea by the promoter of defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

On May 9, 2017, the court had held beleaguered promoter of Kingfisher Airlines guilty of contempt of court for transferring $40 million to his children's accounts despite an order against it. The court, however, had not imposed any sentence on him as he remained elusive.

The court has on August 27 wrapped up its hearing in the review petition filed by him.

The court had earlier also noted "lapses" on the part of its registry for not listing the review petition for three years.

In June, this year, the court has sought an explanation from its registry as to why a review petition filed by Mallya against his conviction in a contempt case in 2017, was not listed before it for consideration in last three years. It had directed the officials to furnish all the details including names of the people who had dealt with the file concerning the review petition for the last three years.

Mallya, who evaded law enforcement authorities here and stayed at the United Kingdom, has suffered setbacks after the court over there allowed for his extradition.

His date of return, however, is still uncertain due to undisclosed legal issues.

The Enforcement Directorate has invoked provisions of the Fugitive Offenders Act, 2018 against Mallya, who had evaded the authorities after defaulting to pay back the loan of over Rs 9,000 crore to the banks.