Vijay Mallya loses legal battle to keep London home

Embattled businessman Vijay Mallya on Tuesday lost a legal battle to hold on to his plush London home after a British court refused to grant him a stay of enforcement in a long-running dispute with Swiss bank UBS. The 18/19 Cornwall Terrace luxury apartment overlooking Regent’s Park in London, described in court as an "extraordinarily valuable property worth many tens of millions of pounds", is currently being occupied by Mallya’s 95-year-old mother Lalitha.  The case relates to a mortgage taken out by Rose Capital Ventures, one of Mallya’s companies, with the former Kingfisher Airlines boss, his mother Lalitha and son Sidhartha Mallya listed as co-defendants with right of occupancy of the property.

Delivering his judgment virtually for the Chancery Division of the High Court, Deputy Master Matthew Marsh concluded there were no grounds for him to grant further time for the Mallya family to repay a GBP 20.4-million loan to UBS – the claimant in the case. "The claimant’s position was a reasonable one… further time is not likely to make any material difference," Deputy Master Marsh ruled. The judge also declined permission to appeal against his order or to grant a temporary stay of enforcement, which means UBS can proceed with the possession process to realise its unpaid dues.Mallya is wanted in India to face charges of fraud and money laundering amounting to an alleged Rs 9,000 crores related to loans made to his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.