Indian banks win UK bankruptcy appeal in Vijay Mallya case
London, Apr 9 (PTI): A consortium of Indian banks, led by State Bank of India, on Wednesday won their court appeal in London to uphold a bankruptcy order against Vijay Mallya in a long-standing legal battle seeking repayment of a judgment debt owed by his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.
High Court judge Anthony Mann ruled in favour of the banks to allow an appeal heard in February, while refusing two applications seeking permission to appeal filed by the 69-year-old businessman, declared a fugitive and wanted for fraud and money laundering charges in India.
“The banks’ pleaded position on security was one which they were entitled to adopt,” Justice Mann ruled.
“The bottom line in relation to this is that the bankruptcy order stands,” he concludes.
Law firm TLT LLP, representing the banks, noted that the ruling confirmed the banks did not hold security over Mallya’s assets and that the bankruptcy petition was correct. The court also found that the realisations from assets attached by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) were conditional and did not discharge the debt under English law.
“This is a significant result for the banks. TLT are pleased to have delivered this outcome, having acted for the banks since 2017 in relation to the DRT (Debt Recovery Tribunal) judgment of GBP 1.12 billion, obtained against Dr Mallya,” said Nick Curling, legal director at TLT LLP.
The case dates back to 2017 when the banks registered the DRT’s judgment in the English courts, which pertained to a personal guarantee Mallya had provided in relation to loans made to Kingfisher Airlines. The banks then served Mallya with a bankruptcy petition in September 2018, which he opposed on multiple grounds.
In April 2020, London’s Insolvency & Companies Court (ICC) ruled that the banks held security over Mallya’s assets, rendering the bankruptcy petition partially defective under Section 269 of the Insolvency Act 1986. The banks appealed this finding, and in March 2021 Justice Snowden permitted them to bring the security appeal, which was heard this year and has now been concluded.
In the interim, the banks amended the bankruptcy petition, agreeing they would relinquish any security held if Mallya was declared bankrupt. Mallya had opposed this amendment, arguing it was contrary to Indian law and public policy. However, in April 2021, the ICC ruled that the amendment was not contrary to Indian law or public policy.
“Despite Mallya’s subsequent appeals, including an appeal against the amendment decision and the Bankruptcy Order itself, Sir Anthony Mann sitting as a judge in the High Court delivered a decisive judgment on 9 April 2025. The court allowed the Security Appeal in favour of the banks, refused Mallya’s permission to bring the amendment appeal and the appeal against the bankruptcy order and ultimately upheld the bankruptcy order,” added TLT.
Mallya, who was declared bankrupt in July 2021, is pursuing a separate annulment application in the UK court, which is now scheduled for a directions hearing in October.
“In circumstances where even the (Indian) government confirms that the assets were ‘restored’, it is fanciful to imagine that those recoveries are in any sense conditional. Mallya will, on this basis, pursue with vigour his application to annul the Bankruptcy Order in England in conjunction with proceedings in the Karnataka High Court to compel the banks to provide an accounting and come clean,” said Leigh Crestohl, Mallya’s lawyer at Zaiwalla & Co.
Meanwhile, Mallya remains on bail in the UK while a “confidential” legal matter believed to be related to an asylum application is resolved in connection with the unrelated extradition proceedings.
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Akhilesh urges for restraint after poster row, questions BJP's silence on similar acts
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Lucknow (PTI): Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav called for political restraint on Thursday, following a recent poster controversy involving B R Ambedkar's image.
Addressing a press conference here, Yadav said, "Lalchand Gautam is the same SP worker because of whom the entire Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was forced out of their air-conditioned rooms and onto the streets."
Gautam, the SP worker at the centre of a controversy over a social media post that depicted a merged image of Yadav and B R Ambedkar, was also present at the press conference.
The SP chief said he had personally met Gautam and advised him to refrain from creating or sharing any such content in the future that could hurt people's sentiments.
"I have explained it to him that he must never again make or share anything that might offend anyone," he said.
The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister further questioned that whether the BJP could exercise the same control over its leaders and workers.
"We have already guided our workers, but can the BJP do the same? Can it ensure that its leaders do not behave disrespectfully towards Babasaheb Ambedkar or any other great personality?" he asked.
Yadav also pointed out that similar imagery involving BJP leaders had surfaced in the past, but the SP chose not to politicise those incidents.
"Their (BJP) leaders' pictures were also there, but we never made an issue out of it," he said.
At the press conference, the SP reiterated to its supporters and workers not to draw comparisons between party leaders and national icons, a day after a controversial poster was put up outside its office here that featured the split faces of Yadav and Ambedkar.
The party, while thanking its supporters for their affection and dedication, expressed concern over the use of such imagery, which has sparked a political row.
"We wholeheartedly thank all our supporters and party workers for their love, affection and commitment," the SP said in a post on X earlier in the day.
"However, we make a very sensitive appeal that no leader of any party should ever be compared to or equated with any divine and venerable personality in any context," it added, cautioning against creating or circulating any images, idols, songs or statements that suggest such comparisons.
The SP leadership has been trying to woo the Dalits, once considered loyal to the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), and competing with the BJP for the support of the Other Backward Classes (OBC), considered the mainstay of the saffron party's phenomenal electoral gains in Uttar Pradesh since the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
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