A Supreme Court Bench of Justices A.K. Goel and U.U. Lalit was caught unawares on Monday when fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya’s lawyers queried why the case against their client has been suddenly shifted to their court when it was already partly heard by another Bench.
The case has been for long been heard by a Bench of Justices Kurian Joseph and Rohinton Nariman.
That Bench had issued contempt notice to Mr. Mallya last July.
It had also, on the other hand, agreed to give Mr. Mallya a reasonable opportunity to be heard when he moved the court with a plea to recall its contempt notice.
Dismissing submissions made by the banks that Mr. Mallya should be even refused a hearing in the contempt case, the Bench had asked them to respond to the businessman’s recall petition.
Judges clarify
“Why is it listed before us? Either the judges [Justices Kurian and Nariman] must have said something or the Chief Justice of India has passed an order,” Justice Goel told C.S. Vaidyanathan, counsel for Mr. Mallya.
The Bench scheduled the case for Friday.
The banks had returned to the Supreme Court seeking contempt of court action against Mr. Mallya for providing a ‘vague’ statement about his assets despite a Supreme Court order to facilitate the recovery of his debts worth over ₹6,000 crore.
The consortium, represented by Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi, argued that Mr. Mallya had failed to disclose his assets both to the court and his banks, especially the receipt of a payment of $40 million out of a total $75 million (₹515 crore) from British liquor major Diageo Plc following his resignation as Chairman of United Spirits Limited in February 2016.
