Justice N V Ramana told senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Chidambaram, that the case will be put before the CJI.
NEW DELHI: A day after Delhi High Court dismissed the anticipatory bail plea of former Union Minister P Chidambaram, he approached the Supreme Court on Wednesday but got no immediate relief and was told that Chief Justice of India will take decision on listing of the case before appropriate bench.
Battery of senior lawyers led by Kapil Sibal, Salman Khurshid, Vivek Tankha and Ashwani Kumar urged the bench headed by Justice Ramana to hear the case, but the judges said that they can’t pass immediate orders and is sending the file to CJI Ranjan Gogoi for necessary directions in the case.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for CBI opposed Chidambaram’s plea.
Sibal then rushed to CJI’s court but since the constitution bench which was hearing the Ayodhya land dispute was sitting, he chose not to mention the case.
So, it is still not clear whether Chidambaram’s plea challenging the Delhi High Court’s order in the INX media case will be heard by Supreme Court today or not. It is likely that CJI will take a call on the listing of the plea during lunch hours.
In his 67 page petition, Chidambaram questioned the move by CBI of pasting the notice on his house late at night and asking him to join probe at such an odd hour and said, “CBI has just called me once in the investigation of the case and I went and answered all questions and was never called again, so what is the motive of putting up such a notice.”
Chidambaram has maintained he isn’t a flight risk, haven’t been accused of influencing witnesses of tampering with the Evidence.
Delhi High Court while rejecting Chidambaram’s interim bail had said, “Facts prima facie reveal that he is the kingpin, the key conspirator, in the case.”
The court also observed that the magnitude and enormity of material brought forth by investigating agencies clearly does not entitle him any pre-arrest bail.
The court said the economic offence of this magnitude certainly requires treatment with an iron hand and the hands of the investigating agencies cannot be tied up in such a massive economic offence.
