It's Still A Bird In The Bush

It is being celebrated by the government as a ‘win’ for India, but the decision by Emma Arbuthnot, chief magistrate of the Westminster Magistrates’ Court, that billionaire fugitive Vijay Mallya can be extradited to India does not mean he will be back to face the music anytime soon.

- Rukmini Rao

Arbuthnot’s order is more a recommendation to the home secretary, Sajid Javid, with whom the power to extradite rests. Mallya can appeal Arbuthnot’s decision within two weeks. If, as BJP president Amit Shah has claimed, this is a victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it is an uncertain one, with defeat in a higher court still possible, and several bureaucratic and legal hurdles to cross before Mallya can be brought before an Indian judge.

Arbuthnot, in her ruling, held that a “prima facie” case could be mounted that the loans made by IDBI Bank to Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines were misused and that he had lied to bank officers beguiled by his persona. The court also rejected Mallya’s claims that his case had become political and he would not receive a fair trial in India as it did Mallya’s representations over the low standard of Indian prison facilities. Promod Nair, a lawyer who works both in India and the United Kingdom, argues that while Mallya will have plenty of opportunity to appeal, “the detailed and well-reasoned decision of the magistrate’s court is likely to be highly persuasive”.