The Karnataka High Court on Friday issued a bailable warrant against liquor baron Vijay Mallya after he failed to appear before it in connection with a contempt of court case initiated against him for allegedly breaching an undertaking given to the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) in 2013 during the proceedings on banks’ plea for recovering dues from Kingfisher Airlines Ltd.

A Division Bench comprising Justice Jayant M Patel and Justice Aravind Kumar passed the order during the hearing of the contempt of court petition filed in 2014 by the banks accusing Mallya of pledging huge number of shares in violation of an “oral undertaking” before the DRT “for not to transfer, alienate or otherwise to dealt with his assets.”

The Bench issued warrant, returnable by February 17 and bailable on executing a bond for ₹1 lakh, as Mallya failed to personally appear before the court, despite his counsel communicating the court’s two orders in this regard.

When the counsel representing banks pointed out that Mallya is not in India and wanted to place before the court the procedures required to be followed to secure an accused who has left the country, the Bench said it would go step by step, while pointing out Mallya’s address is in Bengaluru as per the court records and there are no material to show that he is not in India though it was reported in the media that he has left India.

The Bench asked banks’ counsel to place on record to show that Mallya is not in the country, the counsel said that the Supreme Court has already taken note of this aspect and necessary records will be produced before the High Court.

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