The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to consider a plea by Karti Chidambaram, son of former Union Minister P Chidambaram, who sought refund of Rs 10 crore that he had deposited with the court registry as a condition to travel abroad earlier.
It was submitted on behalf of Karti that he was forced to take loan of Rs 10 crore and was now bound to pay interest. In such a situation, the amount deposited earlier should be refunded, his counsel said. The counsel mentioned the matter before a vacation bench comprising Justices Indira Banerjee and Sanjiv Khanna, seeking urgent consideration. The court, however, asked the counsel to mention before the regular bench.
Justice Khanna was part of the bench headed by the CJI Ranjan Gogoi, which had on May 7 allowed Karti to travel abroad between May and June but after depositing afresh a security amount of Rs 10 crore. The counsel further pointed out that the apex court’s order passed in January had stated his deposit of Rs 10 crore would be refunded on his return. The court refused to budge.
A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Khanna had on May 7 said Karti has to deposit additional sum of Rs 10 crore, even as his counsel senior advocate K V Vishwanathan submitted the same amount, deposited earlier, was still lying with the apex court’s registry. “We don’t think, you would have any problem in depositing Rs 10 crore again,” the bench had said.
—India Legal Bureau