Vijay Mallya applies for funds held by UK court from sale of French property

Liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya on Friday made an urgent application before the UK High Court seeking access to millions of pounds to cover his living expenses and legal fees from funds held with the Court Funds Office as part of bankruptcy proceedings, initiated by a consortium of Indian banks led by the State Bank of India.

Deputy Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Robert Schaffer declined to allow a drawdown from the court-held funds of an estimated amount of around 1.5 million pounds, accrued from the sale of Mallya’s French luxury property Le Grand Jardin earlier this year, until further arguments in the case.

However, he did allow the release of 240,000 pounds plus VAT to cover the legal costs of a substantive hearing in the bankruptcy proceedings scheduled for next Friday.