LONDON: Fugitive Indian industrialist Vijay Mallya could be extradited to India within days if he is not granted leave to appeal by the London high court at his oral hearing on July 2.Mallya made a written application for leave to appeal his extradition on February 14; it was rejected on April 5. On April 11, he applied for an oral hearing to argue his case which has been listed in a four-hour slot starting 10.30 am local time on Tuesday before Justice Leggatt and Justice Popplewell.He needs leave to appeal in order to have an appeal hearing in the high court and, possibly thereafter, in the Supreme Court against his extradition order.Extradition barrister Malcolm Hawkes, of Doughty Street Chambers, said: “If he is granted leave to appeal, then the full appeal hearing will probably be heard in three to four months’ time. On Tuesday he needs to persuade the court that it is reasonably arguable that the district judge was in error in sending his case to the secretary of state to order his extradition.”“A four-hour hearing is exceptional. Normally these hearings are listed for 30 minutes,” Hawkes said.“Usually it is one judge who makes a decision on permission to appeal on the spot. But if this is a four-hour hearing and there are two judges, they can either give their ruling there and then, or they may reserve judgment, or they might give a decision on the day and say their reasons will follow later in writing. If they reserve judgment there is no specific time as to how long it will take,” Hawkes said.If leave to appeal is refused at this oral renewal hearing “it is game over and you are at immediate risk of extradition”, Hawkes said.“That is because when you apply for leave to appeal, the order for your extradition still stands. It has been ordered. In practice, actual removal won’t happen there and then. It will take a few days or weeks because the Indian authorities will need to get ready. The airport is where British authorities would normally hand him over to any Indian police officers, but exactly how things are handled at the airport is a matter for the Indian and British governments,” he said.“Usually they would send police officers from India to accompany him back on the plane. It is for the police involved to decide if they should use handcuffs. Each country has its own arrangements; Poland for example charters its own military aircraft that flies to Britain up to twice a month to collect requested persons. It is possible, but unlikely, that Mallya could be remanded in custody on the day of the court hearing,” Hawkes added.Normally, when permission to appeal is refused, the requested person must be removed within 28 days of the high court decision, although this period can be extended, Hawkes said.Some people on bail do abscond during that period. “But then they are committing a separate bail offence and a warrant would be issued for their arrest,” he added.Mallya’s lawyers are likely to have a Rule 39 application ready in the event his leave for appeal is turned down. This is a last-ditch attempt to get the extradition stayed by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on human rights grounds.“The quickest decision I have ever known on a Rule 39 application was in two hours and the longest was three days so these decisions are made very quickly,” Hawkes said. “This is an interim measure, it is a stay of the extradition proceedings, pending conclusion of any ECHR hearing,” Hawkes said.In 2018 in the UK out of 137 requests for a stay of proceedings by the ECHR, only one was granted.If not granted, Mallya will probably be asked to surrender to the police station at Heathrow airport or at his local police station on a particular date and then they will drive him to Heathrow. It’s very civilised,” Hawkes said.