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SC sentences Vijay Mallya to 4 month jail in contempt of court case

Mallya had disbursed an amount of $40 million to his family members in violation of court orders.

July 11, 2022 / 11:07 IST

The Supreme Court on July 11 awarded a four-month imprisonment term to declared fugitive Vijay Mallya in a 2017 contempt of court case. The court has also slapped a fine of Rs 2,000 to be deposited within four weeks.

Mallya had disbursed an amount of $ 40 million to his family members in violation of court orders. It was for this that he was held guilty of contempt of court. Today, the apex court noted that Mallya, despite being found guilty of contempt, never showed remorse, and did not apologise.

In a major step, the Supreme Court has directed for reversing these transactions to the tune of $40 million and directed for the amount along with 8% interest to be deposited within a period of four weeks.

Also Read: Rs 19,000 crore-worth assets of fugitive Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi seized: Govt

In March this year, the apex court had reserved its order on the quantum of punishment to be given to Mallya in the contempt of court case.

Pertinently, Mallya had failed to make any submissions on the issue of quantum of punishment before the Supreme Court despite the top court's affording the chance to him.

The court had deferred hearing of the case on earlier occasions to allow time to Mallya to present his case before the court either personally or through a counsel. However, Mallya neither appeared before the court nor was his counsel able to obtain instructions from him.

The top court thus proceeded to hear the case and reserved its judgment after hearing amicus curiae at length. The apex court had appointed Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta as the amicus curiae, that is, a friend of the court, for assistance in the case.

A last chance was yet again given to Mallya to make his case through written submissions.

The judgment today pertains to a 2017 ruling of the top court where Vijay Mallya was found to be guilty of contempt of court for willfully violating the court's orders. The conviction for contempt of court was affirmed by the Supreme Court when Mallya's plea seeking review of the ruling was also dismissed.

Mallya was directed to be present before the court for hearing on quantum of punishment, however he remained unavailable owing to the extradition proceedings that were pending against him at the time in the UK.

After the extradition proceedings were concluded, one leg of the proceedings, the nature of which was unknown to the Indian authorities were still underway in the UK.

Shruti Mahajan
first published: Jul 11, 2022 10:54 am

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