Indian media has reported that Kingfisher Airlines has denounced the Reserve Bank of India’s recent ruling that the airline and its CEO Vijay Mallya are “wilful defaulters”.
Kingfisher stated: “The company is advised that none of the parameters constituting wilful default governed by the master circular issued by the Reserve Bank of India apply to the company.”
The State Bank of India had issued a notice to the company on August 19th alleging wilful default in repayment of outstanding debts. A consortium of 17 banks is yet to recover close to Rs 7,000 crore from KFA with State Bank of India’s (SBI) share being the largest at around Rs 1,600 crore.
“In response to the said notice, the company replied requesting SBI to disclose any and all documents, materials, details, evidence that may have been referred to or relied upon by SBI in support of the allegations of the notice, for the company to be able to properly deal with the allegations in the notice,” the statement said.
Kingfisher also added that the Delhi High Court has said that “it is trite law that the material that is relied upon by any authority in arriving at a decision must be made available to the affected party and that such right is an integral part of the principles of natural justice that are enshrined in Article 14 of the Constitution of India”.
Earlier this month, Kolkata-based United Bank of India declared Vijay Mallya, Chairman, UB Group a wilful defaulter for non-payment of over Rs 300 crore. It also declared three other directors of Kingfisher as wilful defaulters.