The Supreme Court on Monday said that fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya cannot cite the pendency of his plea in the top court to delay insolvency proceedings against him in courts “anywhere else in the world”. A petition filed by the businessman last June against the order to seize his properties is pending with the Supreme Court, Bar and Bench reported.

Mallya has used this plea to request the stalling of hearings in courts in London, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told a bench comprising Chief Justice of India SA Bobde and Justices BR Gavai and Surya Kant. The businessman reportedly requested the courts in the United Kingdom not to deliver a ruling in the insolvency case till his plea in the Indian Supreme Court is resolved.

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Last month, the United Kingdom High Court had reserved its verdict on a plea by a consortium of Indian public sector banks, led by the State Bank of India, that sought a bankruptcy order against Mallya. He owes more than Rs 9,000 crore to 17 Indian banks.

“They’ve been saying since 2011 that we will pay everything but not a single rupee has been paid so far,” Mehta told the Supreme Court during Monday’s hearing, according to India Today. The matter was postponed till Friday.

On January 1, a court in Mumbai allowed the banks to utilise the movable assets of fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya to recover more than Rs 9,000 crore he owes them.

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Before this, the United Kingdom High Court had refused to overturn a worldwide order freezing Mallya’s assets and upheld an Indian court order saying the banks were entitled to recover the money Mallya owed.

The businessman fled India and moved to London in March 2016. India submitted an extradition request to the United Kingdom in February 2017 after he made his self-imposed exile clear. The United Kingdom High Court allowed him to challenge his extradition order in June.