liquor baron Vijay Mallya was slapped with a contempt notice by the Supreme Court on Monday for supplying incomplete details of his properties to the banks which are tailing him for recovery of bad loans of up to `9,000 crore.
Appearing for the consortium of 17 banks led by State Bank of India, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told a Bench of Justices Kurian Joseph and Rohington F Nariman that Mallya was in contempt of the Court’s order asking him to disclose all the assets and liabilities in his name and of his family.
He pointed out that the list supplied by Mallya did not mention the $45 million he received from Diageo, a British firm as part of a deal that allowed him to walk out of United Spirits, the holding company of Kingfisher brand, absolving him of all debts and liabilities due to the banks.
Also, the banks pointed out that the information was incomplete as there were no details on the valuation of properties, how it was done and whether it was on the entire property or part of it. Some transactions entered by Mallya were incorrectly stated or even discarded.
The apex court took note of the serious contentions raised by A-G and served contempt notice on Mallya to explain to the court in four weeks.