'Time to end Vijay Mallya’s 2020 plea against seizure: Bombay HC; asks ED to confirm if recovery claims settled

MUMBAI: At a hearing of his plea, the Bombay High Court orally remarked that it was time for a long-running controversy over the recovery of dues from Vijay Mallya, founder of the erstwhile Kingfisher Airlines, to “be brought to an end” after senior counsel Amit Desai, appearing for Mallya, submitted that a petition challenging the seizure of his assets was turning infructuous due to steps taken by the prosecution agency over the last six years.“Actually, this issue needs to be put to an end. The idea is to move on… otherwise the relations and the economy of the country suffer,” Justice Milind Jadhav remarked and sought a reply from the ED to clarify if the civil liabilities had been effectively settled with the recovery of Rs 15,000 crore. “Has everything been ‘done and dusted’?” the HC asked, but made it clear that this would have to be ascertained and confirmed by the respondents.Mallya left India for the UK in 2016, where he remains.The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had confiscated Mallya’s assets in connection with alleged claims of Rs 9,000 crore and Rs 6,203 crore.In 2020, Mallya filed the petition challenging a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) trial court order that permitted an SBI-led consortium of banks to use such ED-confiscated assets to recover unpaid dues. Desai said it was filed when settlement talks were afoot, but by 2026, most of the properties for which he had sought protection had been attached and sold by the ED, rendering the challenge redundant.Justice Jadhav, in his order made available on Thursday, said applications filed by Mallya and Kamsco Industries Pvt Ltd “have seen the light of the day today for the first time after the Board Department was directed to list all old shelf matters.”Mallya had sought the quashing of a December 2019 PMLA court order concerning the seizure of his assets.Desai said Mallya’s “civil liabilities have effectively been settled” as the “consortium of banks have recovered approximately Rs 15,000 crore from (Mallya) when compared with the original claim of Rs 6,203 crore odd including interest.”The HC said the ED needs to confirm such a settlement.The HC clarified that only after hearing the Deputy Director of the ED would it “decide the further course of action in the present” plea.In February, the HC had asked Mallya to inform the court when he intended to return to India. Then Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad had orally said Mallya could not avoid court processes by taking advantage of the pendency of his petition, in which he challenged the constitutionality of provisions of the Fugitive Economic Offender (FEO) Act.