United Bank files notice in SC against Kingfisher

Public sector lender United Bank of India (UBI) filed a notice in the Supreme Court against Kingfisher Airlines (KFA) shortly after Calcutta High Court division bench's judgement was delivered on Thursday.

"We filed the caveat against KFA in SC shortly after Calcutta HC delivered the judgement yesterday (on August 28)", Executive Director of UBI D Narang told PTI on Friday.

The division bench of the High Court dismissed a KFA appeal against UBI and upheld the decision of a single judge of not allowing the company to be represented by a lawyer.

The order said that either KFA Chairman Vijay Mallya could appear or send a company representative for the hearing in front of the bank's grievance redressal panel.

Earlier, UBI had identified Vijay Mallya as a wilful defaulter and asked him to appear before the bank's panel to hear him out before declaring him as a wilful defaulter.

Mallya later moved the court seeking exemption of his appearance before the panel.

KFA, now grounded, had taken a loan worth Rs 350 crore from the bank.

Several other banks like State Bank of India (SBI) and Punjab National Bank (PNB) were also on the trail of declaring Mallya a wilful defaulter.