Bombay HC rejects Mallya’s plea seeking stay on ED application

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has rejected a petition fil-ed by fugitive liquor bar-on Vijay Mallya, seeking a stay on the request ma-de by the Enforcement Di-rectorate before the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court to declare him a fugitive economic offender under the Fugitive Economic Offenders’ Act, 2018.

If a person is declared a fugitive economic offender under the Act, the prosecuting agency has the power to confiscate properties belonging to him/her.

Earlier, Mallya had filed an application in the lower court, seeking a stay on the hearing of ED’s plea till November 26 when the appellate tribunal functioning under the PMLA would hear matters filed by a consortium of banks.

The special court on October 30 rejected Mally-a’s application, following which, he approached the high court.

Mallya’s counsel Amit Desai said “We are also anxious to clear the dues. We only do not want the properties to be seized by the ED, which would then hamper the clearance process.”

A division bench of Jus-tices R.M. Savant and V.K. Jadhav said, “The application has been filed at a very premature stage wh-en the lower court is still hearing the prosecuting agency’s request to dec-lare him (Mallya) a fugitive economic offender.”

The bench, while dismissing Mallya’s plea, said that the lower court will hear the application filed by the ED on merits.