Karti Chidambaram moves Madras HC against Look Out Circular

He has also filed a writ petition for quashing FIR filed by CBI under Prevention of Corruption Act

Karti P Chidambaram, son of former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram, has approached the Madras High Court seeking direction to the Bureau of Immigration, Ministry of Home Affairs and the Central Bureau of Investigation to recall the Look Out Circular (LOC) issued by the Bureau of Immigration declaring it as arbitrary exercise of power, amongst other reasons.
 

The matter was adjourned to August 7, after the Additional Solicitor General requested time to get instructions related to this.

In a petition filed with the Court, he submitted that the authorities are harassing him and his friends citing issues including an Enforcement Directorate's allegations related to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval given to Global Communications Holdings, Mauritius, among others.

According to earlier reports, CBI has registered a case against the alleged irregularities in granting Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media and its then Directors Indrani Mukherjea and Peter Mukherjea, in 2007, alleging that Karti Chidambaram influenced the officials to grant the approval to the company.
 

LOC is a coercive measure to make a person surrender to the investigating agency or Court of law and only if it is amply demonstrated that the person did not repeatedly and deliberately failed to cooperate with the investigations, an LOC can be issued, he argued.
 

He has also filed a writ petition for quashing the FIR filed by the investigating agency under the Prevention of Corruption Act and he has a fair chance of success in the writ petition, he submitted.
 

"There was absolutely no necessity for the CBI to have requested for an LOC when the matters are subjudice and circumstances do not exist for an LOC," said the petition.

He requested the Court to issue direction declaring that the LOC issued by the Foreigner Regional Registration Officer (FRRO), under the Bureau of Immigration under the Home Ministry, as an "arbitrary exercise of power, abuse of authority, vitiated by malafides, ultravires and without jurisdiction," and direct the FRRO to recall the LOC.