Vijay Mallya applies for ‘another route’ to stay in the U.K.

Vijay Mallya has utilized to Home Secretary Priti Patel for “another route” to have the ability to stay in the U.K., the liquor tycoon’s barrister representing him in chapter proceedings in the High Court in London confirmed throughout a distant listening to on January 22.

The 65-year-old businessman, whose authorized problem to the Indian authorities’s extradition request was turned down at the Supreme Court stage in the U.K. final 12 months, stays in Britain on bail till Ms. Patel indicators off on the order for him to be extradited to India to face expenses of fraud and cash laundering associated to the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

The U.K. Home Office has thus far solely confirmed {that a} authorized course of stays ongoing earlier than the extradition order might be executed.

This had raised widespread hypothesis that Mallya had sought asylum in the U.K., particulars of that are neither confirmed nor denied by the Home Office in Britain whereas an utility is pending.

“The extradition was upheld but he [Mallya] is still here because as you know there is another route for him to apply to the Secretary of State [Patel] for status,” mentioned Mallya’s barrister Philip Marshall, when particularly requested by Deputy Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Nigel Barnett about the standing of the extradition proceedings.

It is probably going that the reference is to an asylum route, which, in accordance to authorized consultants, would rely on whether or not Mallya utilized for asylum prior to the extradition request or after.

“He would need to argue much stronger grounds. There are specific rules that detail when asylum is a bar to extradition. Claiming asylum after all appeals have been exhausted is unlikely to be considered a valid claim to asylum protection,” explains Toby Cadman, co-founder of Guernica 37 International Justice Chambers and a U.K.-based extradition specialist.

The court docket on January 22 additionally heard how Mallya, who submitted written proof for the listening to, was in a “constrained” place as an in depth relative had handed away on account of COVID-19.

The distant listening to in the business division of the High Court in London was to set up whether or not the court docket can sanction substantial sums in the direction of Mallya’s dwelling bills and authorized charges from the sale of a French luxurious property Le Grand Jardin final 12 months.

The cash is held in the U.K.’s Court Funds Office (CFO) as a part of chapter proceedings filed by a consortium of Indian banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI) in pursuit of unpaid loans.

Mallya’s authorized crew argues that he must be sanctioned the required funds to meet mounting authorized prices in India and the U.K., which incorporates prices to be paid to the U.K.’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) which argued the extradition proceedings on behalf of the Indian authorities.

The legal professionals for the banks have challenged this as it could dissipate the funds owed to his collectors in the direction of speculative and “unreasonable” prices whereas different sources of funds stay obtainable to the businessman.

The banks’ barrister, Tony Beswetherick, argued that Mallya’s newest written proof reveals that he “does have other assets that he can utilise to meet the very significant costs he is seeking to have validated and paid (including two yachts that he has put into storage in Southampton, debts owed to him by family trusts, and cars in storage in France)”.

However, Mallya’s legal professionals pointed to a worldwide freezing order in place that constrains entry to his property and the conclusion in October final 12 months of his consultancy association for a Formula One crew meant he had no different sources of revenue at his disposal.

They claimed the conduct of the banks was “highly oppressive” and an try to “starve Dr Mallya of the funds”.

At the finish of a half-day listening to, the decide reserved his judgment on the situation of entry to court-held funds and is predicted to hand down his ruling in the coming weeks.

The listening to kinds a part of a sequence as either side make arguments for and in opposition to a chapter order in opposition to Mallya in the U.K.