On Monday, the London High Court declared Vijay Mallya bankrupt. “There is no evidence he will go back to India to face trial so I find insufficient evidence he will pay the debt in full in a reasonable period of time. I shall adjudicate Dr Mallya bankrupt,” chief Insolvency and Companies Court judge Briggs declared. Though he has the option to seek permission to appeal from a Higher Court.
In May 2020, the 65-year-old chairman of UB group, lost all his Court battles against extradition to India but has not returned, now he has to hand over all his assets and his bank and credit cards to a bankruptcy trustee who will investigate his affairs and establish his true assets and liabilities, with a view to selling relevant assets and repaying creditors.
The ED had attached Mallya’s shares under Prevention of Money Laundering Act and then they were sold and transferred to the banks under an order from the PMLA Court in Mumbai on 24th May.
Marshall argued “there are a number of other assets which although not yet realised are held with the DRT officer and can be realised”. He said the value of these was Rs 5,706.6 crore. “If we combine all that together you end up with a figure well in excess of the petition debt,” he said. He also pointed out Mallya had ongoing court proceedings in India to challenge the 11.5% interest rate on the DRT judgment debt. Mallya’s position is that “the banks themselves have inhibited payment of the petition debt by causing the ED to take action to attach assets”. In the interest rate challenge he claims that the banks are not treating Mallya equally to other Indian citizens who owe the banks similar amounts, breaching Article 14 of the Indian Constitution.
“The only thing to bring this mess to an end is Mallya coming back to India to face trial and quite bizarrely his own lawyers are asking when is he coming back,” said Marcia Shekerdemian QC.
