No need to disclose assets, Mallya tells SC

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, August 29

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to a consortium of banks led by the State Bank of India, seeking its response to liquor baron Vijay Mallya’s contention that non-disclosure of his assets did not amount to contempt of court.

A Bench comprising Justices Kurian Joseph and RF Nariman passed the order even as Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, representing the banks, pleaded that the accused UB Group Chairman had no right to defy the court’s order for full disclosure of his assets within India and abroad to assess his ability to repay loans amounting to over Rs 9,000 crore.

Mallya had failed to respond to the notice on the consortium’s contempt petition, nor had he returned to India or disclosed his foreign assets, Rohtagi pleaded. But Mallya’s counsel maintained that the disclosure was linked to loan settlement which was not happening as the lenders had rejected his offer.

The Bench said it would go into all these aspects at the next hearing on September 27.

Earlier, the Bench had issued notice to Mallya directing him to respond within four weeks to a plea for action against him for contempt of court for non-disclosure of his assets despite his failure to repay Rs 9,000 crore.

In his disclosure, the defaulter had not even mentioned the 45 million dollars received by him from British liquor major Diageo.

In the April order, the SC had asked him to declare within two weeks all his assets--movable, immovable, shares, tangible or intangible--and that of his wife and children, his date of return from the United Kingdom and the amount he was willing to pay immediately as repayment of the Rs 9,000 crore bank loans.

The banks had given the loans to Mallya and his companies Kingfisher Airlines, United Breweries and Kingfisher Finvest (India) Limited and all of them have been made parties by the banks in their petition in the SC.