Supreme Court to hear plea for recovery

New Delhi: Consortium of Indian banks on Friday urged the Supreme Court to pass orders to recover over Rs 6,200 cr dues from Vijay Mallya and to direct him to bring back a $40 million payout by Diageo to him.

The banks also wanted a direction to Mr Mallya that the $40 million be deposited in an Indian court pending a final adjudication on recovery proceedings initiated against him.

Senior counsel Shyam Divan, appearing for the banks, made this submission before a new Bench of Justices A.K. Goel and Uday Lalit. Earlier, a Bench headed by Justice Kurian Joseph was hearing the matter.

Justice Goel told senior counsel C.S. Vaidyanathan, appearing for Mr Mallya that a specific order has been passed by the CJI J.S. Khehar for posting the matter before this Bench. He said the contempt is against the institution and it is not necessary that the same bench which issued contempt notice should hear the matter.

Mr Divan blamed Mr Mallya of deliberately not revealing details of the payout while disclosing his assets and liabilities. He said the amount was instead transferred immediately as a gift to trusts set up for his three children.

He demanded that Mr Mallya get back the amount to India and deposit it in either the apex court or the DRT to prove his bona fides.