SC dismisses CBI’s review petition against grant of bail to Chidambaram in INX media case

A three judge bench of the Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the review petition filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against its judgment granting bail to former Union Minister P Chidambaram in the INX Media case, reports BarandBench.com.

Praying for the “errors apparent” in the judgment to be reviewed by the Supreme Court, the CBI had also prayed for the review petition to be heard in open court.

The petition stated that if these errors are considered by the court, it could change the outcome of the Special Leave Petition filed by Chidambaram.

However, the bench of Justices R Banumathi, AS Bopanna and Hrishikesh Roy after deliberating on the review petition in chambers decided that, "order, of which review was sought, did not suffer from any error apparent warranting its reconsideration and thus the Review Petition is, accordingly, dismissed".

The investigating agency had highlighted the findings made in Paragraphs 28 to 31 of the judgment rendered by the Bench of Justices R Banumathi, AS Bopanna and Hrishikesh Roy which dealt with the specific allegation of influencing witnesses in the case.

The findings of the Court “are contrary to record which is required to be corrected”, the review petition had stated.

The judgment observed that there was no material to show that Chidambaram or his son Karti had approached any witnesses to influence them, nor was any mention of this apprehension mentioned in any of the remand applications filed by the agency before the Special CBI Judge.

The court had also found that the agency had not put forth any material before the High Court to show how and when the witnesses were approached. A mere allegation to this effect could not form a basis for denying bail, the Supreme Court held.

The Supreme Court, on October 22, 2019, had allowed the petition filed by P Chidambaram and granted him bail in the case filed by the CBI.

Chidambaram was arrested by the CBI on August 21 and was lodged in Tihar Jail after completion of a fortnight in police custody.