The Royal Courts of Justice in London on Tuesday granted embattled liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya permission to appeal against the extradition order of a lower court to face alleged fraud and money-laundering charges amounting to Rs 9,000 crore in India.

A two-member bench at the Royal Courts of Justice, comprising Justices George Leggatt and Andrew Popplewell, ruled that “arguments can be reasonably made” on some aspects of the prima facie case ruling by Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot in her extradition order of December 2018, which was signed off by UK home secretary Sajid Javid earlier this year.

“By far the most substantial ground is that the senior district judge was wrong to conclude that the government had established a prima facie case,” said Judge Leggatt. “We have been persuaded that the first ground of appeal is reasonably arguable,” he noted.

The first ground revolved around Mallya’s counsel Clare Montgomery questioning the basis on which Judge Arbuthnot had arrived at certain conclusions. She claimed the judge had been “plain wrong” in accepting some of the Indian authorities’ assertions that Mallya had fraudulent intentions when he sought loans for his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

Mallya, accompanied by his son Siddharth and partner Pinky Lalwani, watched the proceedings in court. The 63-year-old later said he felt “vindicated” by the ruling and repeated his offer to pay back the money owed to the Indian banks. “I still want the banks to take all their money, do what they have to do and leave me in peace,” he said.