In a day of fast-paced developments, P Chidambaram Monday got partial relief from the Supreme Court which said he would not be sent to Tihar Jail as of now in the INX Media corruption case after the former finance minister offered that he be placed under house arrest instead of being sent to prison.
The apex court initially, at around 1.40 PM, asked the trial court to consider Chidambaram's request for interim bail on Monday itself and said that in case he is not granted the relief, his CBI's custody would be extended by three more days.
However, hours after the top court passed the order, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta mentioned the matter at around 3 PM and said there would be "jurisdictional difficulty" in implementing the order passed earlier in the day.
After hearing him, a bench of Justices R Banumathi and A S Bopanna modified the order and advanced the hearing for Tuesday from Thursday (September 5) on Chidambaram's plea challenging the non-bailable warrent (NBW) against him and remand orders passed by trial court.
The order was modified on oral mentioning after Mehta said that as per his calculation "15 days remand period of Chidambaram would expire tomorrow or at best day after tomorrow" and CBI cannot take his custody by three more days.
Taking note of Mehta's submissions, the bench said, "CBI is at liberty to move the trial court for seeking extension of remand till tomorrow."
Sibal said, "I will have to make out a case for that. Kindly hear this petition. It is shocking what they (CBI) did to this man (Chidambaram)"