Supreme Court hold Vijay Mallya guilty of contempt, asks to appear on July 10

“We give him an opportunity to be present in court personally while deciding on quantum of punishment,” justices A.K. Goel and U.U. Lalit said.

The order of the top court comes following the contempt plea by the State Bank of India, which is leading a consortium of banks seeking to recover more than Rs 9,000 crore from Mallya’s grounded Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. , moved a contempt plea against Mallya in July 2016.

The banks sought action against Mallya for allegedly diverting $40 million to his children's accounts in foreign banks in violation of the court order.

The banks argued that Mallya had wilfully disobeyed the orders of the apex court by making “vague and unclear disclosure of his assets” and appearing before the apex court.

Mallya fled to the UK in March 2016 and has been living there since then. The Indian Government has been putting in efforts for his extradition for investigation in connection with alleged money laundering by him.

The apex court had started proceeding against Mallya and had issued notice to him on March 8, 2016 on the plea by banks for recovery of  the loan money taken by Mallya for the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines that he owned.