Vijay Mallya loses UK appeal for more funds to cover Indian legal fees

Vijay Mallya on Wednesday lost an appeal to gain further access to courtheld funds to cover his costs for legal proceedings in India as a High Court judge in London concluded that the 65yearold businessman had failed to provide sufficient evidence in support of the over 750000 pounds being soughtDuring a remote hearing of the Chancery Division Justice Robert Miles handed down his judgment in favour of a consortium of Indian banks led by the State Bank of India SBIHe also directed Mallya to cover 95 per cent of the costs of the appeal as the banks had been very substantially successful and the overall winners in fighting the case to prevent further sanctions from the courtheld fundsAlso Read Vijay Mallya applies for another route to stay in UK says his lawyerThe amount being sought was substantial being over 550000 pounds in respect of incurred costs and well over 200000 pounds in respect of the future said Justice MilesThere was no breakdown of the incurred costs between the various sets of proceedings there was no attempt to justify the incurred costs by reference to steps already taken no invoices bills of costs descriptive schedules or other evidence was provided in support of the amount of costs being sought he said adding that the proceedings in India appear to be stagnantThe latest appeal follows Deputy Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Nigel Barnetts February order that gave Mallya permission to use around 11 million pounds from the Court Funds Office CFO towards his living expenses and to meet legal expenses only related to the ongoing bankruptcy proceedings in the UK iquest the next hearing for which is scheduled for July 26The expenditure incurred from the CFO could face further scrutiny at a later date on the conclusion of that petition lodged by the banks in pursuit of a judgment debt which stands at over 1 billion poundsWednesdays ruling followed an appeal hearing on Tuesday during which the businessmans lawyers made representations to meet the costs of threepronged proceedings in the Indian courts related to unpaid loans to the nowdefunct Kingfisher AirlinesMallyas barrister Philip Marshall repeated previous assertions that the COVID19 pandemic had caused ldquovery very substantial disruption to the Indian legal systemrdquo and that the lawyers in India had effectively downed tools until their costs were clearedThe lawyers do need to be paid and therefore these are necessary expenses towards proceedings with a very reasonable prospect of success said MarshallTony Beswetherick the barrister appearing on behalf of the Indian banks had countered that any such sanction of funds would be ldquocontrary to the interest of the creditorsrdquoMallya remains on bail in Britain having lost a separate legal battle against extradition to India to face charges of fraud and money laundering The High Court was informed earlier that the businessman has applied for another route to stay in the UK which is believed to refer to a confidential asylum applicationMeanwhile Mallya has been fighting against being declared bankrupt in the High Court and has repeatedly sought access to funds to meet his mounting legal costs both in the UK and IndiaThe SBIled consortium of 13 Indian banks which also includes Bank of Baroda Corporation bank Federal Bank Ltd IDBI Bank Indian Overseas Bank Jammu amp Kashmir Bank Punjab amp Sind Bank Punjab National Bank State Bank of Mysore UCO Bank United Bank of India and JM Financial Asset Reconstruction Co Pvt Ltd had initiated the proceedings against Mallya in December 2018There have been a series of hearings in the case and related cost matters since thenThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever