'Cannot Specify Date For Return To India, English Courts Have Barred Me From Leaving England': Vijay Mallya Tells Bombay High Court

Former liquor baron Vijay Mallya on Wednesday while citing orders passed by the courts in England, told the Bombay High Court that he is unable to 'precisely' spell out as to by when he would exactly return to India since the English courts have barred him from leaving their jurisdiction. Notably, a division bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad had on December 22, 2025, made it clear that it will not hear Mallya's plea against the validity of the Fugitive Economic Offenders (FEO) Act unless he returns to India. The bench had last week granted one more chance to Mallya to spell out if he had any plans to return to India. In pursuance to the same, on Wednesday, Mallya furnished his 'statement' before the judges through senior advocate Amit Desai, which he claimed were based on 'instructions' given by the former owner of Kingfisher group to his Attorney. "Pursuant to orders passed by courts in England, he cannot leave England... At present, he is unable to precisely state when he will return to India... " Desai read from the statement furnished to the bench. The senior advocate further told the judges that they cannot insist his client's personal and physical presence in India for hearing the petition challenging the FEO Act and relied on two judgments of the Supreme Court wherein the apex court heard petitions in absence of the petitioners, therein. "If he returns then he won't be a Fugitive anymore and then both the petitions would be infructuous milords," Desai submitted. However, the judges seemed unimpressed with Mallya's statement as it did not specify exact reasons for his non-return to India. "But then what is your apprehensions? You merely rely on orders of the Courts in England but you haven't spelt out if you have challenged those orders or not. Are you just taking these orders as an excuse?" Chief Justice Chandrashekhar remarked. At this, Desai argued that the English Court's orders clearly bar him from leaving their jurisdiction. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta along with Additional Solicitor Generals SV Raju, Anil Singh assisted by advocate Dhirendra Singh objected to Mallya's statements stating that "India has a robust and vibrant legal system which is run by rule of law" and that Mallya must trust the authorities here and submit to the jurisdiction of Indian courts. During the course of the hearing, the judges noted that the statement furnished before them through Desai were based on Mallya's instructions to his Attorney and thus asked his legal team to file a proper affidavit reproducing his statement on the same and file it in the court so that the Union of India too can file their reply to the same. The judges have adjourned the hearing till March 11.

'Cannot Specify Date For Return To India, English Courts Have Barred Me From Leaving England': Vijay Mallya Tells Bombay High Court

Narsi Benwal

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