A consortium of 13 banks led by State Bank of India approached the Supreme Court on Tuesday to prevent controversial tycoon Vijay Mallya from leaving the country, but they may have left it too late. Mallya is believed to have left for a foreign destination a few days ago. The banks urged the court to stop him from going abroad as they claimed he owed them over Rs 9,000 crore. The banks were represented by attorney general Mukul Rohatgi, indicating the government was backing the petitioners against Mallya, who recently said he wished to settle in London. Mallya's spokesperson said she had no information about his whereabouts and that he was communicating only through email.

After the AG sought an urgent hearing, the CJI posted the petition for hearing on Wednesday. The petitioner banks are SBI, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of Mysore, UCO Bank, United Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Punjab and Sind Bank, Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, Corporation Bank, Federal Bank and IDBI Bank.

The banks said, the HC failed to protect the interest of the petitioner banks who are yet to recover an amount in excess of Rs 9,000 crore from Kingfisher Airlines, United Breweries Ltd, Vijay Mallya and Kingfisher Finvest (India) Ltd.

"Petitioner banks individually advanced to Kingfisher Airlines loans of thousands of crores of rupees. By way of a Master Debt Recast Agreement (MDRA) of December 21, 2010 and other related documents, the existing lands were restructured and treated as a single facility. United Breweries and Mallya have on December 21, 2010 executed both corporate guarantee and personal guarantee promising repayment of the entire amount due to the banks."