SC relief to Nalini, Karti

The Supreme Court on Friday told the Enforcement Directorate not to take any coercive action against senior advocate Nalini Chidambaram, wife of former Union minister P Chidambaram, in a case related to Saradha chit fund scam.

The court also separately dismissed a plea by the CBI against bail granted to her son Karti in the INX media financial irregularities case.

A bench of justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan issued a notice to the ED on her plea challenging the dismissal of her petition by the Madras High Court on July 10 against the summons issued against her.

The high court had rejected her contention that women cannot be called for investigation out of their place of residence under Section 160 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The ED had issued the first summons on September 7, 2016, asking Nalini to appear before it at its Kolkata office. It subsequently issued fresh summons after the single judge's order.

She was allegedly paid a legal fee of Rs 1 crore by the Saradha group for her appearances in court and the Company Law Board over a television channel purchase deal.

In the appeal, she contended that if the trend of summoning and calling advocates who have been engaged by their clients for rendering professional services was not nipped in the bud, it may lead to "disastrous consequences".

In a separate development, the same bench rejected a plea by the CBI against the Delhi High Court's order of March 23, granting bail to Karti Chidambaram. The court also refused to go into controversy, if the petitioner could have approached the high court when his plea for bail was pending before the trial court.