No High Court relief for Vijay Mallya
BENGALURU: In a setback to proclaimed offender Dr Vijay Mallya, the Karnataka High Court on Friday dismissed the writ petitions filed by him challenging the order of the Debt Recovery Appellate Tribunal (DRAT) which asked him to deposit Rs 3,101 crore.“....The facts prima facie discredit the petitioner’s (Mallya) version that he does not have any money to deposit,” a division bench of Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice Krishna S Dixit said, while upholding the DRAT order.
Recalling Mallya’s contention that all his properties and money have been under freezing orders of courts in India and UK, the High court said that the order does not avail to him. It also said that Mallya is said to have received Rs 260 crore from Diageo. As on the date of the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) order, there was no freezing order by courts in UK. Instead, the freezing order was passed about 10 months after the order passed by the DRT.
Mallya has approached the DRAT against the order of Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) Bengaluru, which directed him to pay Rs 6,203.35 crore on May 31, 2013, with a 15.20 interest rate per annum to the consortium of banks led by SBI.
Referring to the arguments of the counsel of the consortium of banks, the High Court said that the Supreme Court in its order dated April 26, 2016 observed that Mallya did not disclose his assets abroad despite its direction. It also said that there was no bonafide in his offer for settlement of the dues.
Mallya and UBHCL are jointly liable to pay the amount.
Case historY
Vijay Mallya moved the HC seeking to quash the order dated March 28, 2018 passed by DRAT, Chennai. The DRAT dismissed his appeal on January 2, 2018 for want of appearance and for non compliance of office objections. Then Mallya filed an application before the DRAT seeking restoration of his appeal and another application for condoning delay.
After hearing this, the DRAT directed him to deposit D3,101 crore on or before April 25, 2018. It also made it clear that the appeal would be liable to be dismissed if he failed to deposit the money. Mallya then filed an interlocutory application seeking to extend deadline but it was dismissed by DRAT. Mallya moved the Karnataka HC against this order.