UK: London court asks Vijay Mallya to pay £88,000 to Swiss bank

The London High Court has asked Vijay Mallya to pay £88,000 to Swiss bank UBS as part of interim legal costs in a case filed by the bank seeking possession of his Baker Street house.

Swiss bank UBS has alleged that Mallya was given £20.4 million mortgage on which he has defaulted.

Apparently, Vijay Mallya had bought the property in a Grade 1 listed building overlooking the landmark Regent’s Park in 2005. He borrowed £20.4 million from UBS for a period of five years, in March 2012.

However, Mallya claims that UBS called the loan early and that he, his mother and son were entitled to ‘occupation rights’ in the property. The main trial is scheduled over ten days in May 2019 at the end of which the court will decide whether Mallya can hold on to his luxury pad in London or does he have to let go.

On Wednesday, Chief Master Mathew Marsh in the Business and Property Court passed the order during a one-hour hearing. The order was passed after the lawyer representing UBS made submissions for order relating to legal costs. The issue of the cost arose after the court set aside several objections raised by Mallya as they were ‘bound to fail’.

There were some evidence of Mallya’s precarious financial condition after his lawyer suggested that the court should look in the range of 30,000-40,000 pounds as legal costs with the time limit of up to eight weeks for the payment. Declining the request of Mallya’s lawyer, the judge, stated that this was a complex application and that the figure of 88,000 pounds was a ‘proper amount’.

UBS’s lawyer expressed his apprehensions and also brought to the notice of the court that the slow response from Mallya on the payment of previous legal costs ‘makes us nervous’.
The London court then instructed Vijay Mallya’s defence that the deadline of January 4, 2019 was not an ‘aspirational date’ and that payment must be made in full. Chief Master Marsh said that the deadline as ‘an extended period which erred on the side of generosity’.

Meanwhile, Vijay Mallya has been fighting the extradition battle with the Indian government on allegations that he defaulted on loans worth Rs 9,000 crore given to now defunct Kingfisher Airlines by Indian banks. The verdict on the same is expected on December 10 at the Westminster Magistrate Court where Mallya has protested against the prison conditions at Arthur Road jail.

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