Vijay Mallya's resignation turned down by Hamid Ansari

Liquor baron Vijay Mallya, facing a case of loan default of over Rs 9,400 crore, is all set to be expelled from the Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari today turning down his resignation on procedural grounds and Ethics Committee rejecting it.

“Hamid Ansari, Chairman, Rajya Sabha does not accept the resignation of Vijay Mallya. Secretary General, Rajya Sabha writes to Sh. Mallya that his resignation letter does not conform to prescribed procedures & does not bear signature in original.

“As per Rule 213 of RS procedures, the resignation must be voluntary and genuine,” Ansari’s Officer on Special Duty to  Gurdeep Singh Sappal said on Twitter quoting from the Secretary General’s letter.

From his abode in Britain, Mallya had sent a scanned copy of the resignation to Ansari letter in a bid to avoid expulsion  saying he did not want his “name and reputation to be further dragged in  mud”.

“And since recent events suggest that I will not get a fair trial or justice, I am hereby resigning as a member of the Rajya Sabha with immediate effect,” Mallya had said a day before the Ethics panel was all set to recommend his explusion.

The Ethics Committee of the Upper House headed by Karan Singh, which met today, also pointed to the “wrong procedure” while rejecting the resignation, the sources said.

The panel members also expressed dissatisfaction with his reply about his loan default. Panel members were of the view that Mallya’s action was “unbecoming” of a Rajya Sabha MP. The sources said the panel will submit its report before the Rajya Sabha tomorrow.

A motion has to be introduced in the House and approved by it for termination of the membership of any MP.

This is Mallya’s second term in Rajya Sabha and it would would have otherwise come to an end on July 1.

After the meeting, panel Chairman Singh, however, declined to divulge the details saying that being the head of the committee it will not be appropriate for him to announce a decision taken in its meeting.

Mallya had yesterday faxed his resignation to Hamid Ansari a day before the Ethics Committee had to take a decision on recommending his expulsion, an issue which was unanimously decided in the panel’s last meeting on April 25.

Pressed further, Karan Singh, however, said the decision that was taken in the meeting today was also unanimous.

Asked whether the panel has any room left now to take up the matter when Mallya has already resigned, Singh said “of course there is room. He is still a member of the House until it (the resignation) is accepted.” 

Appending a copy of his reply to Karan Singh, Mallya, had, however, asserted,”the allegations against me are blatantly false and baseless”.

“I am shocked that the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, Government of India has provided factually wrong information to a Parliament committee,” he had added.

The committee had sought details of the liabilities on Mallya’s airline Kingfisher from 13 banks, which furnished their replies according to which the total liability on Mallya’s company is Rs 9431.65 crore. Of this, IDBI’s liability alone is Rs 1687.04 crores followed by Punjab National Bank’s Rs 1223 crore.

The committee decided to crack the whip on the ground that Mallya never declared these liabilities in the last ten years, which a member is supposed to do annually.

Enforcement Directorate had a fortnight back written to 17 banks and a clutch of probe agencies to prepare a water-tight case against Mallya who is being probed for money laundering charges in the IDBI alleged loan fraud case.

In a step closer to initiating his deportation, the government had over a week ago revoked the passport of Mallya who is believed to be in the UK after leaving India on March 2.

According to rules, a Member who intends to resign his seat in the Rajya Sabha has to intimate this in writing under his hand addressed to the Chairman, his intention to resign his seat in the Council.