In another legal win for India, a judge in the appeals court of the high court has rejected controversial businessman Vijay Mallya’s application for permission to appeal against home secretary Sajid Javid’s February 4 order to extradite him to India.
Mallya had applied to the court on February 14 and the Home Office submitted its response within the stipulated 20 days. Legal experts say the case is usually allowed to go for a full appeals hearing if new grounds or evidence not previously considered in lower courts are cited.
The appeals court has refused him permission, according to individuals with close knowledge of the case. The refusal suggests that the judge may not have seen merit in Mallya’s application. The case is now expected to revert to the Home Office.
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Mallya is likely to make a representation to the home secretary to prevent extradition on human rights and other grounds. He previously lost his challenge in the Westminster magistrates court, which ordered his extradition in December 2018.
There is a precedent for resorting to ‘representations’ as the last recourse. Tiger Hanif, who is wanted in India in connection with blasts in Surat in 1993, lost all legal challenges in 2013, but has since made representations to prevent extradition to the home secretary, who has not yet taken a decision.
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Facing charges in India of financial irregularities amounting to over Rs 9,000 crore, Mallya has been putting forth his version of events through social media in recent weeks, most recently on March 31 following an interview to a television channel by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In a series of tweets, Mallya used the reported financial problems of Jet Airways to plug his case, demanding that his assets placed before the Karnataka high court be used to pay off banks and other creditors, adding: “It will help them to save Jet Airways if nothing else”.
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