The Supreme Court on 31st August dismissed the Review Petition filed by the infamous fugitive Vijay Mallya. Mallya had sought a review of the 2017 judgment pronounced by this Court holding him guilty of contempt of the court.
Brief facts of the case
Vijay Mallya is a declared Fugitive Economic Offender. The Government of India declared this in January 2019. There have been plans made to extradite him from the UK, and the latter nation has agreed to cooperate. Mallya has moved the Courts in the UK, challenging the extradition order, but he has not been able to secure any success.
In this present Petition, he has prayed for a review of the 2017 judgment of this Court. In the judgment pronounced by Justice UU Lalit and Justice AK Goel, he was held guilty of contempt of Court. He was convicted for disobeying the order of the Supreme Court in a plea filed by SBI and a batch of creditors.
SBI had contended in its plea that the Petitioner had disobeyed the Court’s orders when he transferred a sum of $40 million from Diageo Plc. to his children thus making vague and unclear disclosure of his assets. He also absconded from India in March 2016 and ignored many Court summons which stalled him due to non-appearance.
Arguments
Mr Jai Munim represented the Petitioner. The Learned Counsel was unable to refer to any such part from the response of the Petitioner on three specific questions asked by the Court. Instead, the advanced submissions touching upon the questions whether the directions issued by this Court were violated and whether this Court ought to have proceeded to exercise contempt jurisdiction when the contempt, on the second count, was of the orders passed by the High Court of Karnataka.
Court’s Observation
The bench first observed, after hearing the submissions, the scope of the review here was limited. The submissions were dealt with and rejected in the judgment that is under review. The bench stated that in their view, the attempt on part of the Petitioner to have rehearing in the matter cannot be permitted. The submissions do not make out any error on record to justify interference in review jurisdiction.
Court’s Order
The Order was pronounced by a division judge bench comprising of Justice Uday Umesh Lalit and Justice Ashok Bhushan. They dismissed the Review Petition and also directed the Petitioner to appear before the Court on 5th October. They directed the Ministry of Home Affairs to help and ensure the same.
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