Bombay High Court tells Enforcement Directorate to confirm Vijay Mallya settlement after ₹15,000 crore recovery

Six years after Vijay Mallya challenged the seizure of his assets, the Bombay High Court has signalled that the recovery dispute with banks should finally end. Justice Milind N. Jadhav on Wednesday directed the Enforcement Directorate and the State Bank of India to respond to Mallya’s claim that lenders have already recovered around ₹15,000 crore from him.

A plea that waited six years

The case began on 31 December 2019 , when a special court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Mumbai passed an order in Misc. Application No. 58 of 2019 in ECIR No. ECIR/03/MEZO/2016. That order allowed the SBI-led consortium of banks to utilise properties confiscated by the Enforcement Directorate to recover dues from Kingfisher Airlines. Mallya moved the High Court on 21 January 2020 , seeking to quash the order.

The application remained unheard for years. It was only after the court’s Board Department was told to list old shelf matters that the plea came up for hearing.

Mallya’s counsel: 'The petition has become redundant'

Senior advocate Amit Desai , appearing for Mallya, told the court that the petition was filed while settlement negotiations were on and sought protection for certain assets. Since then, Desai said, most of those assets have been attached and dealt with, making the petition redundant.

He also argued that Mallya's civil liabilities have effectively been settled. "The consortium of banks have recovered approximately Rs 15,000 crore from the applicant when compared with the original claim of Rs 6,203 odd crore including interest," Desai submitted. He said it was unfortunate that public sector banks were keeping the matter alive, and added that an RBI audit had described the Kingfisher collapse as an airline business failure and nothing else.

Court: A dispute that needs closure

Justice Jadhav did not immediately rule on the petition. Instead, he issued notice only to SBI, as lead bank, and Respondent No. 13, the Deputy Director of the Enforcement Directorate , returnable on 9 September 2026 . The court said the two respondents should apprise it of the submissions made by Desai and the further developments in the ECIR case.

The court noted that Mallya’s recovery claim “needs to be ascertained and confirmed by the respondents.” It also observed that the dispute needed to be resolved so that the parties and the economy could move on. The recovery figures, however, do not affect the criminal case. The court made clear that the criminal prosecution against Mallya must continue to its logical end.

Connected application and next steps

In a related application by Kamsco Industries Pvt Ltd, also represented by Desai, the court directed SBI to serve a copy of its reply affidavit before the next date. Mallya was granted liberty to file an additional affidavit detailing developments after the petition was filed.

Background of the case

Mallya left India in March 2016 . The Enforcement Directorate had provisionally attached his properties in 2016 under the PMLA, and in January 2019 he was declared a fugitive economic offender . In February 2019 , the ED told the special PMLA court that it had no objection to the SBI-led consortium liquidating the confiscated assets to recover the outstanding bank debt. Mallya continues to face criminal proceedings in India, including allegations of loan default, fraud and money laundering connected to Kingfisher Airlines. UK courts have approved his extradition , but he has remained in the UK amid a separate confidential legal matter.

Court's key observation

"Only after hearing Respondent No. 13, this Court will decide the further course of action in the present Application and consider issuing notices to the other Respondents."

The next hearing is on 9 September 2026 .