LONDON: Fugitive economic offender Vijay Mallya has failed to be granted an appeal hearing in the London high court to argue that the bankruptcy petition against him should be dismissed.
On Wednesday his barrister Philip Marshall appeared before Justice Birss in the chancery division of the high court to make a renewed oral application for permission to appeal the decision by ICC Judge Briggs last year to adjourn the bankruptcy petition for at least six months to see whether settlement could be achieved, rather than dismiss it. Briggs had also allowed the Indian banks, to whom Mallya now owes around Rs 10,000 crore, to submit an amended petition after failing in their first one to declare they held security over some of Mallya’s assets in India, in breach of the Insolvency Act.
Marshall said the petition should be dismissed as the debt is disputed as there is a case before the Supreme Court of India, which could lead to a compromise settlement. “The Supreme Court of India could impose a solution on the debtor and their creditors, irrespective of their consent, which disposes of the debt. This was addressed in the form of the expert report of Verma who said Mallya’s prospects of success were more than just fanciful,” he said.
“Dr Mallya has put forward a proposal which is that he has various assets in India in the form of shares in UBHL and third parties and he says these assets are sufficient to meet the debts of the petitioning banks and to discharge those debts. This can only sensibly be resolved in India,” Marshall added.
He also said if the bank’s breach in the first petition was deliberate, this was an abuse of process and the judge should dismiss the petition. He said the judge had erred by not taking the bank's security over UBHL (United Breweries Holdings Ltd) assets into account as well.
Justice Birss refused permission to appeal on the grounds that there was no real prospect of success and said the argument about reaching a settlement in India could be raised in current proceedings, which were still ongoing.