File status report on Mallya's extradition, SC to Centre

The Supreme Court Monday asked the Centre to file status report in six weeks on the confidential legal proceedings pending in the United Kingdom on extradition of fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya to India. A bench of Justices U U Lalit and Ashok Bhushan posted it for hearing in the first week of January next year.The bench also refused to accept the plea of advocate E C Agarwala, appearing for Mallya in the apex court, seeking discharge from the case.The Centre had on October 5 told the apex court that Mallya cannot be extradited to India until a separate secret legal process in the UK, which is judicial and confidential in nature is resolved .
Mallya, an accused in bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines, is in the UK since March 2016. He is on bail on an extradition warrant executed three years ago by Scotland Yard on April 18, 2017.The Centre had given details of the extradition proceedings against Mallya starting from February 9, 2017 till dismissal of his appeal on May 14 and said that the fugitive businessman has thus exhausted all avenues of appeal in the United Kingdom.The Centre had said that following the refusal of leave to appeal, Mallya's surrender to India should, in principle, have been completed within 28 days but the UK home office intimated that there is a further legal issue which needs to be resolved before Vijay Mallya's extradition may take place .