Ex-Billionaire Mallya One Step Closer to India Extradition
The ‘King of Good Times’ has lost a series of court challenges since 2018.
(Bloomberg) -- Former billionaire Vijay Mallya is one step closer to being forced to return to India to face fraud charges after a London court made further U.K. challenges to his extradition nearly impossible.
Two judges said Thursday that the fallen tycoon’s case raises no issues of public interest, all but ruling out an appeal to the U.K. Supreme Court. The 64-year-old Mallya, who’s on bail, has lost a series of court challenges since 2018.
Mallya, who’s known as the “King of Good Times” in India, was arrested in London in April 2017 after 17 banks accused him of willfully defaulting on more than 91 billion rupees ($1.3 billion) in debt accumulated by Kingfisher Airlines -- a full-service carrier he founded in 2005 and shut down seven years later. A willful defaulter refuses to repay loans despite having the means to do so.
His lawyer didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
Extradition must take place within 28 days of the decision of the Supreme Court refusing leave to appeal. But the tycoon does have a couple options left, says lawyer Nick Vamos, who led the Crown Prosecution Service’s extradition team for four years.
Although he’s exhausted his domestic remedies, Mallya can appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. This won’t automatically stay his extradition however. Only if and when the court accepts the case will it direct him not to be extradited pending its ruling, he said.
Mallya’s lawyers could also apply to bring a human rights challenge to the High Court based on a change of circumstance between when the legal arguments were heard in the case and him getting on the plane to India, Vamos said. The High Court would only grant leave to appeal if it is satisfied that it’s necessary to avoid real injustice and that the circumstances are exceptional.
In this case, that exceptional circumstance could be Covid-19.
“He could argue that taking him to India and putting him in prison exposes him to something the High Court never considered because Covid-19 didn’t exist then and now it does,” Vamos said.
The government of India, before the pandemic, made assurances to Mallya that the prison he would stay in is staffed with round-the-clock health care in order to meet his needs.
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