The Madras High Court on Thursday restrained a Singapore court from initiating proceedings against BJP leader Subramanian Swamy in a case filed by Advantage Strategic Consulting Singapore Pte ltd, a company controlled by Karthi Chidambaram, son of Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram.
Justice R Sudhakar, who heard the plea by Swamy that the Karthi Chidambaram-controlled company could have filed the case in India itself, issued an anti-suit injunction under order 39, rile (1) and (2) of the Civil Procedure Code.
The Karthi-controlled Singapore company had filed a defamatory case against Swamy in the Singapore court in connection with certain references made by the BJP leader during a Press meet at New Delhi on April 26, 2012. The case was filed on behalf of Advantage Strategic Solutions, controlled by Karthi which has a branch in Singapore.
“This was a cowardly thing to do. Karthi Chidambaram could have filed a case against me in India itself,” Swamy told the Madras High Court.The tussle between Swamy and the Chidambaram family started when the BJP leader at a Press conference in April 2012, exposed the money trail on Aircel-Maxis deal. Swamy had revealed the documents of money flow between Karthi-controlled Advantage Strategic Consulting with its Singapore subsidiary.
The Singapore company had filed proceedings against Swamy. Though the Indian company issued legal notice against Swamy, it did not proceed further. Swamy later approached the Supreme Court, seeking contempt case against Karthi and Chidambaram for dragging the matter in Singapore court. Swamy said this is a personal vendetta by the father and son duo. However, the apex court dismissed Swamy’s contempt petition observing that the matter was not connected with the 2G spectrum cases.