The Centre on January 18 informed the Supreme Court that the United Kingdom has communicated to India that the fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya could not be extradited until a “confidential legal issue” concerning him was resolved.
The Ministry of External Affairs’ letter to the Supreme Court was read out by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta before a Special Bench led by Justice U.U. Lalit. The letter, quoting excerpts from the U.K. government’s communication to the Indian government, mentioned that there was a pending “further legal issue” before the UK could extradite Vijay Mallya to India.
Although the UK side has assured India that it was “seeking to deal with the issue as quickly as possible” as they know how important the extradition is to the Indian government, there were no details on what the “issue” is or how long it would take to resolve the issue. The UK has refused to elaborate on this, saying that it was judicial in nature.
Mr. Mehta reiterated that the government has been making frequent and repeated efforts to extradite “The King of Good Times” from the UK.
The letter itself related how the Foreign Secretary had raised the issue of Mr. Mallya’s extradition with the UK Home Secretary in November. The Foreign Minister had done so with the U.K. Foreign Secretary in December. This was followed by the Home Secretary raising it with the UK Permanent Under Secretary of Home in January 2021.