P Chidambaram fails to get urgent hearing in Supreme Court

The uncertainty over the future of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram continues after his petition seeking interim bail failed to get listed before the Supreme Court today..Chidambaram’s legal team comprising Senior Counsel Kapil Sibal, Salman Khurshid, and Vivek Tankha, among others, appeared before Justice NV Ramana, seeking an urgent listing of the case..Sibal told the Court that they were constrained to mention the case before him at 2 PM given that the petition was not listed. Justice Ramana had, in the morning, refused to pass orders with respect to listing. He said that he would place the file before CJI Ranjan Gogoi for his consideration..With the petition not being listed, the matter was mentioned at 2 pm before Justice Ramana. Ramana J. told Sibal that the petition was lying in defects..Sibal told the Court that defects in the petition were cured, and that it ought to have been listed..Justice Ramana then called the Supreme Court Registrar to ask why the petition has not been listed. The Registrar informed the Court that defects in the petition had just been cleared and that the process for listing was being followed..Justice Ramana emphasised that he cannot pass any orders without the case being listed. However, Sibal persisted and submitted that the Court has, in the past, granted protection to litigants upon oral mentioning..“Your Lordships have done it in the past and protected on oral mentioning… My client is not going to run away. There is a lookout notice issued against him. He is not going to run away.”.However, Justice Ramana said that the Court could not pass an order without hearing the case..Earlier today, Justice Ramana told Sibal to mention the matter before CJI Ranjan Gogoi, assuring him that the file would be sent to the CJI immediately for his consideration..Chidamabaram’s lawyers then made their way into the court of CJI. However, when the five-Judge Constitution Bench assembled to hear the Ayodhya dispute case, no mentioning was made as the Bench directly proceeded to hear the Ayodhya case..P Chidambaram was denied anticipatory bail by the Delhi High Court in the INX Media case yesterday..Delhi HC denies anticipatory bail to P Chidambaram in INX Media case.Remarking that an offender must be exposed irrespective of his status, Justice Sunil Gaur of the Delhi High Court had observed that a prima facie case was made out against Chidambaram, and that it was not a fit case for grant of pre-arrest bail..Chidambaram was then constrained to approach the Supreme Court seeking an urgent listing of his appeal..The INX Media case pertains to the alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board clearance to INX Media at the time when P Chidambaram was the Finance Minister. It is the case of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) that P Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram received illegal gratification from INX Media owners, Peter and Indrani Mukherjea for the clearance.