The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed Congress MP Karti Chidambaram’s plea seeking return of Rs 10 crore which he had deposited with the court’s registry as a condition for being allowed to travel abroad.
A vacation Bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Aniruddha Bose rejected the plea by Karti, who is facing criminal cases which are being probed by the CBI and Enforcement Directorate.
“Now you pay attention to your constituency,” it said. The son of former Union Minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram has won the Lok Sabha election from Sivaganga parliamentary constituency in Tamil Nadu.
“Having heard counsel for the applicant (Karti), we are not inclined to allow the prayer made. The application is accordingly dismissed,” the Bench said in its order.
During the hearing, Karti’s counsel told the Bench that as per apex court’s order, Karti had deposited Rs 10 crore in the court registry as a condition for travelling abroad and the money should be returned to him as he had came back to India. “Every time you (Karti) go abroad, you have to deposit Rs 10 crore. Otherwise, what we can do is that you take back Rs 10 crore deposited by you and we would make the next amount (as a condition for travelling abroad) as Rs 20 crore,” the Bench told his counsel.
The Bench was hearing Karti’s plea in which he had sought return of Rs 10 crore deposited by him in the court registry, claiming he had taken the money on loan and was paying interest on it.
On May 7, a bench headed by the CJI had allowed Karti to travel to the United Kingdom, US, France, Germany and Spain in May and June this year.
“The applicant (Karti) shall make a deposit of Rs 10 crore only before the Secretary General of this Court, which will be returned to him after he comes back to the country,” the bench had said in its May 7 order.