New Delhi: The Supreme Court yesterday refused to entertain Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) chairman-promoter Vijay Mallya's plea against being declared a 'wilful defaulter' by the United Bank of India.
"Your grievance has been that Grievance Redressal Committee should not decide the matter but they have already decided it; therefore, your plea is infructuous," a Bench comprising Justices A.R. Dave and U.U. Lalit said.
Kingfisher Airlines had filed the Special Leave Petition on Friday against an order from Calcutta High Court which dismissed its writ petition and an appeal against denial of the company's right to be represented by lawyers before the Grievance Redressal Committee of UBI.
Following cancellation of his plea in the Supreme Court, the only option left for Mallya is to approach the Calcutta High Court again challenging the decision of the Grievance Redressal Committee, the company's counsel submitted before the apex court.
"Our exposure is more than Rs 350 crore. Declaring them as a wilful defaulter was necessary because now Vijay Mallya cannot be on the board of the companies. He cannot borrow from companies and we have followed the RBI guidelines on that. It was necessary for us to do that," said Deepak Narang, ED, United Bank of India.
Stepping up their drive to recover dues from the ailing Kingfisher Airlines (KFA), lenders to the airline are now looking to invoke personal guarantees issued by Vijay Mallya, the promoter of the airline.
The airline founded by Mallya has not made profits in the last eight years from launch and has been unsuccessful in efforts to find new investors to revive operations.
And in addition to UBI, IDBI Bank too is also considering declaring Mallya a "wilful defaulter", which means that he could be forced to stand down from any corporate posts and could damage the fundraising prospects of businesses with which he is associated.
