Vijay Mallya believes Indian banks pursuing bankruptcy proceedings against him in the English courts have assumed an \”unreal quality\” in the wake of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s recent statement in Parliament. He has instructed his lawyers to pursue an annulment application. It emerged as Justice Anthony Mann reserved judgment, to be handed down at a later date after hearings of three interlinked appeals related to his bankruptcy order concluded at the High Court in London this week. The judge heard a set of complicated arguments involving a consortium of banks seeking repayment of an estimated judgment debt of around GBP 1.05 billion owed by the 69-year-old businessman’s now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.Separately, concerning India’s extradition request, MallyA remains on bail in the UK while a \”confidential\” legal matter believed to be related to an asylum application is resolved. He is also wanted in India on fraud and money laundering charges, and has long denied wrongdoing and argued that the Indian banks have been pursuing the same debt owed by his defunct airline in India and the UK.
