The Supreme Court on Friday refused to interfere with a Delhi High Court order granting bail to former Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s son Karti Chidambaram in the INX Media case, PTI reported. A bench of Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said, “When it comes to the question of liberty, the courts do not go into technicality.”

However, the court said it would leave the question of law open – whether Karti Chidambaram can approach the High Court when his application for bail was already pending before the trial court. The court made the observation after Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Central Bureau of Investigation, said this question has to be kept open “as invoking powers of concurrent jurisdiction of High Court may be a case of ‘forum shopping’”.

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In March, the High Court granted bail to Karti Chidambaram after he was questioned in CBI custody for 23 days. On June 25, the agency moved the Supreme Court challenging the High Court order granting bail to Karti Chidambaram. It contended that to entertain the plea was “impermissible in law” as a similar petition was pending before the trial court.

The case

In May 2017, the Enforcement Directorate had filed a money laundering case against Karti Chidambaram, INX Media and its directors Indrani Mukerjea and Peter Mukerjea. Karti Chidambaram’s company allegedly received Rs 10 lakh from INX Media – which had got clearance from the Foreign Exchange Promotion Board for Rs 4 crore in foreign funding, when in fact it had got Rs 305 crore in 2007. P Chidambaram was the finance minister in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at that time.

The money was paid to Karti Chidambaram in return for help to get away without facing any punitive action, investigators had told the court. Karti Chidambaram has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in the INX Media case.