SC verdict today on Mallya's review plea holding him guilty of contempt

The Supreme Court will pronounce its verdict on a plea filed by Vijay Mallya seeking a review of May 2017 order holding him guilty of contempt for transferring $40 mn to his children

The Supreme Court on Monday will pronounce its verdict on a plea filed by fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya seeking a review of its May 2017 order holding him guilty of contempt for transferring USD 40 million to his children in violation of the court's order.

A bench of Justice UU Lalit and Justice Ashok Bhushan will pronounce the judgment today.

It had reserved the order in the case on August 27 after hearing parties in the case. Mallya is an accused in a bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines and is presently in the United Kingdom.

The Supreme Court had issued its May 9, 2017, order on a plea by a consortium of banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI), claiming he had allegedly transferred USD 40 million received from British firm Diageo to his children in "flagrant violation" of various judicial orders.

Earlier, the apex court had asked Mallya about the "truthfulness" of his disclosure of assets and the transfer of money to his children.

At that time, the top court was dealing with pleas of lending banks seeking contempt action and a direction to Mallya to deposit USD 40 million received from offshore firm Diageo to the banks respectively.

The banks had then accused Mallya of concealing the facts and diverted the money to his son Siddharth Mallya and daughters Leanna Mallya and Tanya Mallya in flagrant violation of the orders passed by the Karnataka High Court.