SC dismisses Vijay Mallya’s review plea against contempt order

The Supreme Court today dismissed the review petition filed by fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya against the Court’s 2017 order, which had held him guilty of contempt of court. The Top Court held Mallya guilty of contempt for transferring $40 million to his children in violation of the court’s order.

A bench, comprising justices U.U. Lalit and Ashok Bhushan, on 27 August, had reserved its order after hearing arguments in the case. The case had been adjourned previously as the reply filed by Mallya could not be found in the case record of the Supreme Court.

On 19 June, the Top Court had sought an explanation from its registry as to why Mallya’s review petition had not been listed for the last three years before the court. The Court directed the registry to furnish details of all the officials involved in dealing with the review petition files during these years.

On 9 May, 2017, Mallya was convicted for contempt of court for not truthfully disclosing his assets and transferring assets to his family despite court’s order against the transfer.

The Supreme Court’s 2017 order had come after a plea was filed by a consortium of banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI), which had said that Mallya had allegedly transferred $40 million received from British firm Diageo, to his children in “flagrant violation” of various judicial orders. The banks had back then alleged that Mallya concealed the facts and diverted the money to his three children in violation of the orders passed by the Karnataka High Court.

The Supreme Court was dealing with pleas of lending banks seeking contempt action and a direction to Mallya to deposit $40 million received from offshore firm Diageo respectively with the banks.

Mallya, who is an accused in a bank loan default case of over Rs. 9,000 crore is presently in the UK.