Highlights
- High Court hearing postponed to March 2026 following India's "chunky assurances" on detention.
- Modi appeared via videolink from Pentonville prison as judges noted "sense of déjà vu".
- Extradition could proceed if permission to reopen appeal denied at next hearing.
Fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi's latest attempt to challenge his extradition to India has been delayed until March 2026, with judges expressing a "sense of déjà vu" over his repeatedly failed appeals.
The UK High Court hearing on Tuesday was adjourned after Indian authorities submitted what were described as "chunky assurances" regarding the 54-year-old's pre-trial detention conditions in Mumbai.
Lord Jeremy Stuart-Smith and Justice Robert Jay, presiding at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, noted the familiar pattern of Modi's legal challenges, which have kept him in British custody since his arrest in March 2019.
Modi appeared via videolink from Pentonville prison in north London, taking notes as the two-judge bench set a firm timetable of mid-February 2026 for submissions ahead of the next hearing.
Legal arguments clash
The case centres on Modi's alleged role in an estimated $2 bn Punjab National Bank loan scam. He faces charges of fraud and money laundering from the Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate.
It emerged in court that a "confidential process" related to a legal bar to extradition, believed to be an asylum application, had concluded unsuccessfully in August.
The Crown Prosecution Service, representing India, argued that Modi's application to reopen the appeal emerged as "necessary and urgent" days after that confidential procedure failed.
Helen Malcolm KC, CPS barrister, pointed to four Indian officials in court two from the CBI and two from the ED, who had travelled for the hearing. "We appreciate this is profoundly depressing and upsetting," Lord Justice Stuart-Smith acknowledged.
Modi's legal team, led by barrister Edward Fitzgerald KC, argued that India's latest assurances were "not adequate or reliable to meet the real risk of torture or inhuman treatment" by Indian officials.
His lawyers referenced the recent Sanjay Bhandari extradition case, where the defence consultant was discharged on human rights grounds.
They claimed assurances from the CBI and ED relied on "the word of the very bodies" found in the Bhandari case to be involved in "common place and endemic practice of proscribed treatment to obtain confessions".
The Indian side highlighted the case's "considerable history", having progressed through UK courts for nearly six years.
If permission to reopen the appeal is denied at the March-April 2026 hearing, Modi's extradition to Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai could proceed immediately.
