Vijay Mallya seeks permission to appeal in UK Supreme Court against order for extradition to India

London: The embattled liquor baron Vijay Mallya has sought permission to appeal against a ruling ordering his extradition to India in Britain’s highest court the UK Supreme Court.

The application comes two weeks after the High Court in London – the UK’s second-highest court – dismissed Mallya’s appeal against a lower court ruling that he be sent to India to face charges of defrauding a consortium of Indian banks of more than Rs 9000 crores relating to the collapse of Kingfisher Airlines in 2012.It was widely expected that Mallya, 64, would exhaust the appeals process in the UK against the order.

A spokesperson for the Crown Prosecution Service, which is representing the Indian Government in the extradition process, told “The leave to appeal has been filed. We have until May 14 to respond”.

In his appeal to the High Court, Mallya’s lawyers had argued that the Indian government had failed to prove a prima facie case against their client and raised a number of issues with the decision made in 2018 by Judge Emma Arbuthnot at Westminster Magistrates Court in London.

The two-bench panel at the High Court however, dismissed the claim, stating, “We consider that while the scope of the prima facie case found by the judge (Arbuthnot’s) is in some respects wider than that alleged by the Respondent in India there is a prima facie case in which, in seven important respects, coincides with the allegations”.

Under UK’s legal system, Mallya’s application to appeal the High Court’s decision must be made at the High Court itself. The appeal must be made on a point of law, meaning that Mr Mallya’s lawyers must prove that the high Court judges misinterpreted or failed to follow the letter and spirit of the law in its ruling.

Source: ANI