Vijay Mallya untraceable, lawyer requests SC to be relieved from representing him

EC Agarwala, the advocate-on-record for Mallya in the Supreme Court, told the bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli that Mallya is not responding to his communications and he only has the businessman's email id , reported India Today.

"As per my information, Mallya resides in the United Kingdom but he is not communicating with me now and all I have is his email address. Since he is not traceable and not appearing anywhere in India, I should be relieved from representing him," Agarwala told the bench during a hearing of the petitions filed by Mallya regarding a monetary dispute with the State Bank of India, said the report.

The bench allowed the lawyer to follow the process to get himself discharged from the case.

It also directed him to inform the court registry about the e-mail ID and current residential address of Mallya and slated the hearing for January next year, according to the report.

Earlier this year, the court sentenced Mallya to four months in prison for contempt of court for violating its orders.

The court also directed the government to ensure Mallya's speedy extradition to India.

Mallaya has been trying to escape extradition even as he faces the proceedings in the UK initiated by the Indian government.

The UK high court cleared Mallya’s extradition in April 2020, but the matter has been on hold for two-and-half years now

Former liquor baron and promoter of the erstwhile Kingfisher Airlines had left India on Mar 2, 2016 presumably for London, days before the Supreme Court heard a plea of clutch of state-owned banks seeking recovery of over Rs 9,000 crore from his group firms.