Supreme Court gives Vijay Mallya last chance to appear; next hearing on Feb 24

As per amicus curiae, "An adequate opportunity has been given to Mallya to appear and there is no violation of the principle of natural justice. Mallya has been given sufficient notice, he has chosen to not appear and does not bar Supreme Court from moving ahead with sentencing him."

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"Mallya has abstained from proceedings in the Supreme Court and we have to pronounce sentence in his absence," it said.

Last year, the bench, comprising justices SR Bhat and Bela M Trivedi, said Mallya is at liberty to advance submissions, as are deemed appropriate, and if for any reason, he is not present before the court, a lawyer on his behalf can advance submissions.

“What we wish to do is, we will list this matter for disposal in the second week of January because we have waited sufficiently long enough, we can’t be waiting any longer now. It has to see the light of the day at some stage or the other and the process must also get over,” the bench said.

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Earlier, the apex court had dismissed his plea seeking review of its 2017 verdict which held him guilty of contempt for transferring $40 million to his children in violations of the court orders.

On January 18, 2021, the Centre told the top court that the government is making all efforts to extradite Mallya from the United Kingdom but the process is being delayed due to some legal issues involved in the matter.

Mallya, an accused in a bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines, is in the UK since March 2016. He is on bail on an extradition warrant executed three years ago by Scotland Yard on April 18, 2017.

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Mallya, who fled to the UK, is being probed by the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with an alleged Rs 9,000 crore bank fraud linked to the operations of his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

The 65-year-old liquor baron has lost his case against extradition to India and as he has been denied permission to file an appeal in the UK Supreme Court, his extradition to India has become final, the ED had earlier said. Over Rs 22,000 crore (Rs 22,585.83 crore in definite numbers) bank funds is stated to have been “defrauded” in these two cases.