Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: Fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya on Wednesday informed the Bombay high court that he cannot specify when he will return to India as he is legally barred from leaving the United Kingdom.In a statement submitted through his counsel Amit Desai, Mallya said that he does not have an active Indian passport and is also restrained by court orders in England and Wales from travelling outside the UK. The submission came after a bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad last week made it clear that it would not hear his plea challenging the order declaring him a fugitive economic offender unless he returns to India.The court had asked Mallya to clarify whether he intended to come back to the country.Mallya, who has been based in the UK since leaving India in March 2016, has filed two petitions before the high court, one challenging the order declaring him a fugitive economic offender and another questioning the constitutional validity of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act.In his statement read out in court, Mallya said that he cannot give a definite date for his return as his passport was revoked by the Indian government in 2016 and because courts in England and Wales have prohibited him from leaving the country.“Mallya is not permitted to leave or attempt to leave England and Wales or apply for or be in possession of any international travel document. In any event, the petitioner is unable to precisely state when he will return to India,” Desai read out from the statement.The senior counsel further argued that Mallya’s physical presence in India was not necessary for the court to hear his pleas against the fugitive tag and the provisions of the Act.“If he (Mallya) were to appear in India, then all these proceedings would be rendered irrelevant as the statute says that once the offender appears in the concerned court of law, then all these orders would be set aside,” Desai told the court.Mallya, 70, faces multiple cases of alleged fraud and money laundering linked to the default of loans amounting to several thousand crores. He was declared a Fugitive Economic Offender in January 2019 by a special court hearing cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.The high court has directed the Union government to file its reply to Mallya’s statement and posted the matter for further hearing next month.
