CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has ordered the return of documents pertaining to a writ petition back to Karti, son of former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram and asked him to approach the High Court in Delhi, which has superintending power over the issue involved in the case.
Originally, Karti had filed a writ petition challenging the CBI summons which asked him to appear before it in connection with a case relating to alleged misuse of his position as son of the then finance minister in the matter of INX Group.
The charge against him was that he had influenced the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) not to take any punitive action against INX group in a transaction, which allegedly violated FIPB rules.
When the petition came up on Tuesday, Justice P Velmurugan said though the petition was maintainable and he had territorial jurisdiction, he was inclined to adopt the doctrine of forum of convenience.
When any other party approaches the High Courts at Delhi or Mumbai, there is a possibility of conflicting views. Hence, in the interest of justice and in order to avoid conflicting views in the matter, the judge directed the Registry to return all the papers filed before the court to the parties for enabling them to approach the Delhi High Court, which has superintendence over the Special Court for CBI cases there, the judge added.
The matter related to an FIR filed against Karti and INX Media along with eight others for alleged irregularities in FIPB clearance given to the media house for foreign direct investment. The investigating agency had alleged that the FDI proposal of the media house was fallacious, but former union finance minister Chidambaram had cleared it.