New Delhi: With Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari turning down Vijay Mallya's resignation letter on procedural grounds and Ethics Committee rejecting it, the liquor baron, who is facing a case of loan default of over Rs 9,400 crore, is all set to be expelled from the Upper House of Parliament.
"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.
In his resignation letter to Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari, he said he did not want his "name and reputation to be further dragged in the 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," he had said.
He had also referred to the letter written to him by Singh and said he had replied to it.
Mallya had said that he received the letter from Singh dated April 25 in which it was stated that the Rajya Sabha Chairman had referred an issue to the Committee on Ethics regarding "purported default" by Mallya in the "repayment of bank loans", which have "not been reflected" in his declaration of assets and liabilities.
Mallya said the letter further stated that in a meeting "purportedly held" on May 25, the Committee on Ethics unanimously felt that he should be expelled from the Rajya Sabha.
Appending a copy of his reply to Singh, Mallya, who faxed his resignation to the Rajya Sabha Chairman, he had 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 further said.
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 crore followed by Punjab National Bank's Rs 1223 crore.
This is Mallya's second term in Rajya Sabha and it would have otherwise come to an end on July 1.
The committee decided to crack the whip on the ground that Mallya never declared these liabilities in the past 10 years, which a member is supposed to do annually.
(With PTI inputs)
