"Nothing Can Happen Here Till There Is Stay": Delhi Court Adjourns Hearing In INX Media Case Till August 12

A Delhi Court on Thursday adjourned hearing in the CBI's INX Media case involving Congress Leader P. Chidambaram, his son Karti Chidambaram and others.

Special CBI Judge MK Nagpal adjourned the matter in view of the trial being stayed by the Delhi High Court. The matter was thereafter adjourned for August 12.

"Nothing can happen here till there is a stay." The judge said.

The Delhi High Court in May this year stayed the trial court proceedings in the INX Media case in CBI's plea seeking setting aside of order passed by the trial court directing CBI to supply copies documents collected or statements recorded by the investigating agency during the course of investigation to the accused persons.

A single judge bench comprising of Justice Suresh Kumar Kait had stayed the proceedings before the trial court.

Challenging the order passed by Special CBI Judge dated 5 March, the CBI had moved the Delhi High Court stating that the Special Judge had exceeded its jurisdiction in issuing directions to CBI to file or produce before the Court all the documents collected by it during the course of investigation and to observe that the accused persons are also entitled to copies of such documents irrespective of the fact that whether they are being relied upon by the CBI or not.

CBI had registered an FIR dated 15th May 2017 against INX Media Pvt. Ltd., Karti Chidambaram and others for offences under sec. 120B read with sec. 420 of IPC along with sec. 8, 12(2) and 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

Since the offences find mention in the Schedule appeneded to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, a case was also registered by the Directorate of Enforcement (DoE), Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue, Government of India on 18th May 2017 and an investigation was therefore taken up for a possible action under PMLA.