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Informist, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – The Bombay High Court Tuesday asked fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya to state when would he come back to India, observing that it will hear his plea against the challenge to Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 only if he submits to the jurisdiction to the court. "We have passed this order on an understanding that the petitions challenging the vires of Fugitive Economic Offenders Act should not be heard in the absence of the petitioner having submitted himself to the jurisdiction of this court," said the court.

 

The high court was hearing petitions by Mallya, challenging the constitutional validity of the 2018 Act and a Mumbai court order declaring him a fugitive economic offender. "...you will have to make a statement as to when you will return to India, only then we will hear the petition challenging the vires of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act," said the court. It said that the court may allow Mallya to challenge the order of Mumbai court declaring him fugitive economic offender, but his plea against the 2018 Act cannot be permitted if he has not submitted to the court's jurisdiction.

 

Mallya's counsel said that his client wants to close all the matters and discharge his liabilities. The Enforcement Directorate had attached assets worth approximately INR 140 billion, far exceeding the alleged liability of about INR 60 billion, said the counsel. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the probe agency, said that fugitives should not be permitted to challenge the vires of an Act without being subjected to the courts of the country. Mehta said that separate extradition proceedings against Mallya were under way and had reached an advanced stage. "Come back to India, we are here to provide you with a solution. You should submit to the jurisdiction of this court," said the bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad.

 

Vijay Mallya is wanted in India for defaulting about INR 90 billion lent by banks to Kingfisher Airlines. Mallya fled to the UK in 2016 and was declared a fugitive by a Mumbai special court in 2019, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Under the law, once a person is declared a fugitive economic offender, the prosecuting agency has the power to confiscate his or her property.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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