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Delhi HC issues notice in Christian Michel James’s petition over his release
The court sought the ED, CBI, and Union home ministry’s response on the merits and maintainability of the petition
The Delhi high court on Monday issued a notice in a petition filed by Christian Michel James, the alleged middleman in the AugustaWestland VVIP chopper deal, against a trial court’s order rejecting his request for release from prison.
A bench of justices Vivek Chaudhary and Manoj Jain sought the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and Union home ministry’s response on the merits and maintainability of the petition. It fixed January 9 as the next date of hearing.
Michel approached the high court against the trial court’s August 7 order, denying his request to be released, as he had completed the maximum seven-year sentence in the case.
The trial court in its order noted that he has been accused of serious offences, including forgery, carrying a punishment of up to life imprisonment. It added that it could not thus be said that he had undergone the period of maximum punishment.
The trial court had also taken note of a 2023 Supreme Court judgment, which observed that James had not only been extradited for cheating and criminal conspiracy but also for money laundering. It added that these offences were connected to the extradition request and therefore did not violate the doctrine of speciality under Article 17 of the India-UAE Extradition Treaty or Section 21 of the Extradition Act, 1962.
Section 17 of the treaty permits the prosecution of an extradited individual not only for the offences for which extradition is granted but also for connected offences. Section 21 bars the conviction of an extradited individual for any other offence other than for which he was extradited.
In his petition before the high court, argued by advocate Aljo K Joseph, James said that the order was illegal and violative of Section 21. It said the order held that the provisions of the treaty would prevail over the act.
He challenged Section 17 of the treaty, arguing that although the CBI had initially charged him in 2017 under Sections 8, 9, and 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, each carrying a maximum sentence of five years before the 2018 amendment, it subsequently invoked Section 467 of the Indian Penal Code, by virtue of the treaty, through supplementary charge sheets.
The petition added that he had already undergone five years of sentence in addition to the pre-extradition incarceration of five years, and the invocation of Section 467, as permitted under the treaty, has resulted in continued detention. It added that he would complete seven years of imprisonment without parole or remission on December 4.
Michel was extradited from the UAE in December 2018. The Supreme Court granted him bail in the CBI case in February, and the Delhi high court in the ED case on March 4. He remains in prison due to his failure to abide by the condition requiring him to deposit his passport.
The CBI has alleged that senior officials agreed in 2004 to tweak the mandatory service ceiling of helicopters to favour AgustaWestland. This allegedly caused a loss of €398.21 million (approx ₹2,666 crore) to the government in a deal worth €556.262 million ( ₹3,726.9 crore). The ED is probing the money trail linked to kickbacks in the deal.
