Christian Michel James. Credit: PTI file photo
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday refused to entertain a plea in its present form by alleged middleman Christian Michel James, an accused in the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam case, challenging a provision of the India-UAE extradition treaty.
He challenged Article 17 of the treaty, signed in 1999, which allows the requesting state (in this case India) to prosecute extradited persons not only for the specific offence for which extradition was done but also for connected offences.
A bench of Justices Vivek Chaudhary and Manoj Jain refused to entertain the petition in its present form, saying it cannot declare the provision to be ultra vires to the Constitution when no consequential relief was sought.
"No consequential relief is sought. Why should we simply declare? File a better petition. You have two options -- liberty to file the petition afresh or you will argue we will hear and decide. But then we will not grant any relief.
"Declaration can only be given when there is a cause of action. We cannot just declare. Where is the cause of action?” the bench said.
As the court said that James should file a better petition with specific prayers, his lawyer withdrew the plea and sought liberty to file a fresh one.
The bench said the treaty was not passed by Parliament and it is not a law which could be declared ultra vires by the court.
“It is like a proposed bill and you are asking us to declare it ultra vires which cannot be done. A law can be declared ultra vires but not a proposed bill," it said.
The lawyer for James, who was extradited from Dubai in December 2018 under this treaty, argued that an extradited person can be prosecuted only for the offences for which the extradition has taken place and not for connected offences.
After his extradition, James was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
He is among the three alleged middlemen being probed in the case and the other two are Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa.
The CBI, in its charge sheet, has alleged an estimated loss of 398.21 million euros (about Rs 2,666 crore) to the exchequer due to the deal that was signed on February 8, 2010, for the supply of VVIP choppers worth 556.262 million euros.
The ED, in its charge sheet filed against James in June 2016, had alleged that he had received 30 million euros (about Rs 225 crore) from AgustaWestland.