Mallya was not involved in daily affairs of KFA, says his counsel

Vijay Mallya was not involved in day-to-day affairs of Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) and cannot be held liable in several cheque-bouncing cases filed against him by Delhi airport operator DIAL or Delhi International Airport Ltd, his counsel told the Delhi High Court on Friday.

The submission was made before a bench of P S Teji where Mallya's counsel sought setting aside of trial court orders summoning him as an accused in the cheque bounce cases by citing that there was a full-time chief executive. "It is an admitted fact that respondent (DIAL) was well aware about the status of petitioner (Mallya) qua KFA and still chose not to proceed against him (earlier).

"It was because DIAL was aware that he was a non-resident Indian for the purpose of tax and foreign exchange regulations in India and his role was restricted to directing matter of policy on behalf of KFA and he was not involved in day-to-day operations of KFA as there was a full time CEO (accused No 2)," advocate Ramesh Gupta, representing Mallya, filed.

The trial court had summoned Mallya as accused following a complaint by Delhi International Airport Ltd, which operates the capital's IGI Airport, claiming that a cheque for Rs one crore issued by KFA on February 22, 2012 was returned to them a month later containing the remarks "fund insufficient".

DIAL has filed four cases in June 2012 against Mallya over KFA's cheques totalling Rs 7.5 crore not being honoured.

The grounded airline had issued the cheques towards payment for services availed by them at the IGI airport here.