Setback against Vijay Mallya, Losing UK appeal, appealing to Indian Bank for £1 billion debt

Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya appealed Wednesday to a bankruptcy order by the London High Court, which has debts of more than 1 billion pounds ($1.28 billion) to lenders, including the National Bank of India.

On Monday, Vijay Mallya claimed that Indian banks already have access to his property ₹141.316 million, more than twice the amount he owed to public sector banks.

Mallya, who lives in the UK, has fought a long legal battle with lenders and Indian authorities after the collapse of Kingfisher Airlines, which had already collapsed in 2012.

In 2017, a group of banks received an Indian verdict worth more than £1 billion in India, guaranteeing Kingfisher Airlines’ debt.

The ruling was registered in the UK later that year and a bankruptcy order was issued against Mallya in 2021.

Mallya appealed the bankruptcy order at a hearing in February when his lawyer argued that the bank had recovered assets that effectively settled the debt.

But his appeal was dismissed Tuesday, with Justice Anthony Mann saying in a written ruling: “The bottom line…the bankruptcy order is the position.”

Mary’s lawyers said in a statement that he would continue to seek to overturn the bankruptcy order.

Mallya, also co-owner of the Formula One team in India, is separately dealing with extradition to India to face fraud charges of Kingfisher Airlines’ collapse.

His recent appeal against his extradition was denied in 2020, but Mann said in his ruling that the extradition order “still not be enforced.”

“It is clear that Dr. Mary is still resisting extradition on other unresolved basis,” Mann added.

(Reported by Sam Tobin; Editor of Sachin Ravikumar)