Mumbai: A State Bank of India-led consortium of lenders has told the Bombay High Court that nearly Rs 8,752 crore remained recoverable from fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya as of August, even after the debt recovery officer has reclaimed Rs 10,270 crore so far. This contradicts Mallya’s argument that banks have already recovered amounts exceeding their dues.
Mallya, the founder of defunct Kingfisher Airlines and former chairman of the United Breweries Group, had in 2020 moved the high court seeking dismissal of criminal cases against him. He argued that his dispute with the banks had been settled as they have fully recovered their dues. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed its say in the matter. Last month, the high court directed SBI to file its affidavit in reply.
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The matter is scheduled to be heard next on October 13. In an affidavit, the banks informed the court that the debt recovery officer had “temporarily recovered” Rs 10,270 crore, backed by a bond undertaking from the consortium. Another Rs 544.58 crore had been recovered before filing of a suit in the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT), while Rs 8,135.63 crore, excluding legal and other costs, remained recoverable at the time of an earlier affidavit filed in January 2026.
Lenders said the outstanding amount subsequently increased to Rs 8,751.86 crore as of August 31, excluding legal and other expenses. The disclosure is significant since Mallya had said in court that the consortium had already recovered more than the amount originally due.
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SBI did not respond to ET’s queries. “The recovery figure cannot be viewed in isolation from the amount that continues to remain due under the recovery certificate, including subsequent accruals,” said a senior banker familiar with the matter. “The consortium position is that substantial sums are still legally recoverable despite the assets and proceeds realised so far.”
The affidavit was filed in proceedings before the high court in response to Mallya’s plea seeking to quash the money laundering case against him. The consortium has opposed the plea, arguing that the criminal application challenging an earlier order dated December 31, 2019, is misconceived and should be dismissed.
The banks also told the court that certain shares attached in the case remain intact and haven’t been sold. The dispute involving Mallya, the SBI-led consortium and investigating agencies has run on two parallel tracks—recovery of bank dues and criminal prosecution.
Banks have pursued recovery through the DRT and sale or restitution of attached assets, while the ED and CBI have pursued cases alleging bank fraud, criminal conspiracy and money laundering linked to loans extended to Kingfisher Airlines.
The ED says assets worth about Rs 14,132 crore have been restored to SBI, but has maintained before the high court that such recoveries settle civil claims and don’t, by themselves, extinguish pending criminal proceedings under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Mallya, declared a fugitive economic offender in 2019, has argued that lenders’ recoveries exceed the original decreed debt and thus has sought closure of proceedings against him.
“The restoration of assets under Section 8(8) of the PMLA is a statutory mechanism for restitution to a claimant having a legitimate interest in the property and does not, by itself, determine the existence of the scheduled offence or the offence of money laundering,” the ED said in its reply, a copy of which ET has seen. “The subsequent restoration/ recovery of assets, therefore, cannot be construed as extinguishing or rendering infructuous the pending proceedings under the PMLA.”
The latest affidavit effectively puts the consortium’s position on record that recoveries already made don’t extinguish Mallya’s liabilities.
