The Madras High Court will examine on Monday the factors which led the Bureau of Immigration to issue lookout Circulars (lOCs) against Karti Chidambaram and four of his friends in a case connected with the foreign exchange violation by INX Media, a TV network owned by Indranee Mukerjee and Peter Mukherjee.
The Supreme Court in an order dated January 31 had asked Karti and his friends to approach the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court to hear and dispose the petitions.
When the Division Bench consisting of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quddhose took up the case on Wednesday, G Rajagopal, the additional solicitor general sought time till Monday to get instructions from the BOI.
But Satish Parasaran, senior counsel representing the petitioner told the court that the petition should be disposed of at the earliest since Kari and his friends had to go to Britain and France. But the ASG clarified in the court that since the petitioners were scheduled to leave for Britain and France only between February 15 and 28 and between March 20 and 31 the court could take a decision even on February 12 which was accepted by the court.
The case related to the kickbacks allegedly received by Advantage Strategic Consulting from INX Media for scuttling a probe by the Department of Revenue into allegations of INX Media receiving foreign funds of Rs 305 crore without approval by the concerned agencies of the Union Government when Chidambaram was the Finance Minister of the country. The CBI is probing the case.