Vijay Mallya may be back on Indian soil within a month, after the high court in London has refused Vijay Mallya’s application to appeal to the Supreme Court against his extradition. The decision, delivered remotely on Thursday, marks the end of an extraordinarily long and bitter legal battle between India and the former liquor baron, who has been in the UK since March 2016.
The decision means that Mallya will be sent to India in the next 28 days, although he can knock on the doors of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on the ground that his extradition impairs his human rights. But that will still not stop New Delhi and London to continue with the extradition process, unless the ECHR gives an interim ruling halting the extradition process. The high court ruling is a reaffirmation of the December 2018 judgment of Westminster Magistrates’ Court, which concluded that Mallya has a prima facie case to answer. It was senior district judge Emma Arbuthnot’s unusually long, and meticulous judgment that essentially laid the ground for India’s victory. It was going to be a tall order for Mallya’s team to extricate the embattled tycoon from the tentacles of that judgment.
Yet, when the defence lodged an appeal, it was on the ground that the district judge had constructed a case that was different to what the Government of India had put forward. Defence barrister Clare Montgomery claimed that there were multiple errors in the trial court’s judgment and that they had not got the chance to properly address the issues based on which the ruling went against them. The high court gave the permission to appeal (it was rejected at the first instance by the high court), which brought a short-lived cheer to Mallya’s camp.
In the last few months, Mallya has been successful in deferring the attempt by Indian banks to have him declared bankrupt and also managed to refinance his London home thus managing to save the house from being taken over by a Swiss bank. In another case against Qatar National Bank he managed to save the yacht from being sold. But all these victories matter little, with the extradition battle being lost.
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The UK Home Office was sill to respond to Mirror’s request for a statement raising concerns in government circles on whether there is a possibility of the case taking another turn.