NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the liquidation of United Breweries Holding Ltd (UBHL) to recover fees payable for Kingfisher Airlines to creditors, including banks, and dismissed the company’s claim against its settlement.
A bench of judges UU Lalit, Vineet Saran and S Ravindra Bhat defended the Karnataka High Court verdict of dissolution of the company and dismissed the appeal filed by UBHL against the sentence.
UBHL has been waging a legal battle for the past three years after a single HC bank ordered liquidation in 2017, which was then challenged before a divisional bank. The division bank rejected the company’s request in March.
Lead defender CS Vaidyanathan, appearing for the company, told SC’s bank that assets of around Rs 14,000 crore belonging to UBHL, Vijay mallya and other entities had been attached by the Directorate of Enforcement when the total debt was only about 6 billion rupees. He said that the freezing orders that were pending in court had been challenged and that no purpose would be resolved by liquidating the firm.
Senior lawyer Mukul rohatgi, which appeared for the SBI-led consortium of lending banks, opposed UBHL’s request, arguing that only Rs 3,595 million had been recovered so far and that the company still owed more than Rs 11 billion.
Noting that the dissolution of the company should be the last resort, the CV granted a wide audience to all parties, but ultimately dismissed UBHL’s claim.
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