The Centre on Monday told the Supreme Court that fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya cannot be extradited to India until a separate “secret” legal process in the UK, which is “judicial and confidential in nature is resolved”.

The Centre said it is not aware of the secret ongoing proceedings as the government of India is not party to the process.

The ministry of home affairs, in its affidavit filed in the contempt case in which Mallya has been held guilty, said this legal issue is “outside and apart from the extradition process” and is “confidential and cannot be disclosed”.

A bench of Justices U.U. Lalit and Ashok Bhushan, which took up the matter through video conferencing, asked Mallya’s lawyer to apprise the court by November 2 what kind of “secret” proceedings were going on to extradite him.

The bench told advocate Ankur Saigal, representing Mallya, that as the government of India says it has no idea about the proceedings, he has to apprise the court about the nature of proceedings, when these proceedings would get over and when the contemnor (Mallya) was going to appear before the court.

Mallya, an accused in a bank loan default case of over Rs 9,000 crore involving his defunct Kingfisher Airlines, is in the UK since March 2016.