The Supreme Court on Thursday declined the request of Karti Chidambaram for an urgent hearing seeking permission to travel abroad. Karti had sought the permission to travel aboard from November 3.
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.
“Karti Chidambaram going abroad is not so important that it will get precedence over other (cases),” the bench, also comprising Justices U U Lalit and K M Joseph said.
The top court also observed that judges have more cases “than they can handle”.
The court, however, further extended the interim protection from the arrest of Karti Chidambaram and former Union minister P Chidambaram till November 26 in the Aircel-Maxis case.
The apex court had on July 23 allowed Karti to visit the United Kingdom, France and the United States of America from July 23 to 31, making it clear that he has to abide by the conditions imposed by it in an earlier similar order.
The bench had said that Karti will have to surrender his passport with the ED when he returns from his visit.
The court had allowed Karti to travel abroad with certain conditions, including that he would not open or close any bank account abroad.
Karti has been facing criminal cases being investigated by the ED and the CBI.
One of the cases relates to FIPB clearance to INX Media for receiving foreign funds of Rs 305 crore when his father was the finance minister. He is also facing proceedings in cases like Aircel-Maxis and money laundering matters.
Earlier in September, ED had alleged that Karti has been “blatantly misusing” the liberty granted by the court in allowing him to travel abroad and has been using the same to protract the investigation in the case.
(With PTI inputs)