Born in 1955 Vijaya Mallya took over his father’s business at age 28 and started Kingfisher Airlines in

2005. Going on to 2009, the company come under debt of ₹5,665 Crore due to factors such as
acquiring financial unsound airline Air Deccan, increase in oil price, and many more. To repay the
debt, Kingfisher took a loan of ₹900 Crores from IDBI bank. However due to continued losses and
capacity reduction the company was unable to repay the loan which in the year 2010 stood at $1.3
Billion. In 2012, the company had to cancel several of its flights due to failure in settling dues.
Around the same time the pilots also started to protest due to delay in salary payment. All these
circumstances led to an issue of non-bailable warrant against Vijay Mallya and four other directors.
The company continued to suffer huge loss, which in the third quarter of 2013 was ₹822.42 Crore.
Fearing an immediate arrest, Vijay Mallya left India on March 2 days before the banks moved to
Supreme Court asking for an overseas travel ban on him.

It was also suspected that Vijay Mallya was involved in money laundering case in which he used the
loan money to pay tax havens. He had laundered the money with the help of shell companies
located in UK, USA, and other 5 countries, all of which were under his control. He also become a
“Proclamied Offender” as he did not appear in the courts even when Enforcement Directorate (ED)
issued a non-bailable warrant against him and summoned him to testify in the court of law.

On ethically analysing Vijay Mallya’s deeds over the years it is clear that he has not fulfilled any of his
ethical duties as specified in the Section 166 of the Companies Act, 2013.

1. The first offense of this duty was that he failed in his duties towards the shareholders, employees,
and investors. Being the owner of second largest Airlines, the company didn’t generate profits for
8years which is a clear indication of self-gain mal-practices. Even after claiming that he didn’t had
enough money to pay the lenders or his employees, he still had an elaborate birthday.

2. The second offense came into view when a probe by Serious Fraud Investigation Officer (SFIO)
found that the merger of Kingfisher Airlines and Deccan Aviation Limited was unethical. The merger
was not completely transparent towards its shareholders as an amount of ₹30 Crores that was
payed to Deccan Aviation owner was not disclosed to them.

3. The third offense towards his ethical duties was that he clearly misused his powers after becoming
an MP in Rajya Sabha. Even though he owned an airlines company, he ensured to be a part of the
Civil Aviation Committee so as to speed up the approval of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

All these incidents reflect on Vijay Mallya’s unethical leadership qualities, dishonesty, illegal
behaviour, and lack of moral responsibility.