Bombay High Court wants Vijay Mallya jet taken out of airport

Once an icon of his high-flying days and now a symbol of his bad times, a luxury jet belonging to beleaguered businessman Vijay Mallya should be cleared from the Mumbai airport, said the Bombay High Court on Monday.

"It does not augur well for India, to display this private jet to international travellers," the Bombay High Court observed as it asked the official liquidator of the Karnataka High Court to take steps to take the jet out of the airport premises even if it is not airworthy.

The direction followed after the Service Tax department informed that all efforts to auction the jet have failed. The last auction conducted also did not have any bidder. Mallya, who is currently in the UK, has been declared a wilful defaulter of loans and taxes related to Kingfisher Airlines that was grounded in 2012.

A division bench of Justice S C Dharmadhikari and Justice Bharati Dangre asked the liquidator to "do something" about the luxury jet, an Airbus 319, by February 26. It is lying in a hangar at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport.

The Karnataka High Court has ordered the winding up of Kingfisher Airlines and its parent company, United Breweries Holding Limited.

The plane that can carry 25 passengers and about 6 crew members had been attached by the department to recover the dues.

The company owes Rs 32.68 crore as service tax from the tickets sold to passengers of Kingfisher Airlines between April 2011 and September 2012.

In 2016, the Bombay HC had asked the department to revalue the base price of the aircraft. Earlier, it had allowed successful bidder M/s SGI Commex Ltd to withdraw its bid from the auction.

The department had sought cancellation of the bid as the offer price was 81.08 per cent below the reserve price.

As per the department's draft disposal manual, the maximum lowest bid allowed for such an auction is up to 20 per cent below the base price.