NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday declined urgent hearing on a plea by senior Congress leader P Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram, who is facing several criminal cases, seeking its permission to go abroad.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said the issue of Karti Chidambaram visiting abroad is not an important matter requiring an urgent hearing. The refusal of CJI in entertaining the out of turn petitions is not new as from the day he has taken over the post, he has completely stopped the regular mentioning of the cases which is turning out to be helpful as a lot of time is saved.
The bench also referred to the work-load of apex court judges and said, "All judges have more work than they can handle. They have 20 hours of homework." "Karti Chidambaram going abroad is not so important that it will get precedent over other (cases)," the bench said.
The apex court had allowed Karti Chidambaram to travel to UK between September 20 and September 30, despite the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) objection that he has been -"blatantly misusing-" the liberty granted to him by the court.
Karti Chidambaram has been facing several criminal cases including the grant of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance in the INX-Media case.
Meanwhile, a Delhi court extended till November 26 the protection from arrest to former Union minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti in the Aircel-Maxis case. Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate, told CBI Special Judge OP Saini, "We have to meet a deadline and he (P Chidambaram) is not cooperating."
"In the INX Media case, the CBI had registered an FIR on May 15 last year against alleged irregularities in the FIPB clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when P Chidambaram was the Union finance minister.