Court asks defunct KFA promoter Vijay Mallya to give 48-hour notice to fly abroad

MUMBAI: A local court in Mumbai has directed Vijay Mallya to not leave the country without giving a notice of 48 hours, according to special counsel present during the proceedings.
The metropolitan magistrate’s court, Mumbai also said Mallya will have to produce two people as references whenever he has to go out of the country, according to Advait Sethna, special counsel for the service tax department.

The promoter of defunct airline was present in the Esplanade court on Friday and sought permission from the court to travel abroad, through his counsels. The case is adjourned to February 4.

“This order is a significant one. As also contended by Kingfisher’s Counsel during the course of hearing, none of the courts in the country in which matters against Kingfisher Airlines and Mallya are subjudice, have passed any orders restraining the travel and movement of Mallya, who is a sitting Member of Parliament and a well connected and influential person.” said Advait M Sethna, special counsel, who is representing revenue department in the case.

“This order therefore, sends the right message in such cases that court orders/ directions cannot be taken lightly and reinforces that no one is above law.”

The department has filed a case against Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines for default. The total outstanding taxes now amounts to Rs 37 crore. Kingfisher Airlines shut operations in October 2012 as a heavy cash crunch forced it to default on salaries after which its employees went on an indefinite strike.

Kingfisher owed more than $1.5 billion to lenders, the government, its employees and other creditors before it shut operations.

Earlier, in mid-December the court had given Mallya and the airline CEO Sanjay Aggarwal a “last chance” to appear in court on January 9 and granted provisional bail of Rs 50 lakh till that date to A Raghunathan, chief financial officer and TR Venkatadri, assistant vice president of the airlines, who were also named as accused.