SC Dismisses Plea of Vijay Mallya's UBHL Against HC Order to Wind Up Firm

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea filed by United Breweries Holdings Limited of liquor baron Vijay Mallya against an order of the Karnataka High Court upholding the winding up of the firm for recovery of dues payable by Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. A bench comprising justices UU Lalit, Vineet Saran and S Ravindra Bhat refused to entertain the plea of the UBHL against the March 6 order of the high court. On March 6, the high court had rejected the offer of Mallya for settlement of debts of now defunct Kingfisher Airlines terming it as not bona fide and made in good faith and dismissed the appeal of UBHL against the order of winding up of the company. The high court said that many of the assets proposed by the UBHL in the offer of settlement were attached either by the ED under PMLA or by the Debt Recovery Tribunal and it cannot prohibit the statutory authorities from discharging their functions and order sale of assets. Earlier, the Debt Recovery Tribunal here had ordered the SBI-led consortium of banks to start the process of recovering over Rs 6,203 crore, at 11.5 per cent annual interest rate, from the embattled tycoon and his companies in another Kingfisher Airlines case.