Justice Mukta Gupta issued notice to the CBI and asked the probe agency to file its reply by May 14 besides filing a status report by the next date of hearing.
The court was hearing a petition filed by advocate Abhijat appearing for Jaitly, who is facing trial for allegedly taking a bribe 11 years ago to recommend to the then NDA government a fake defence deal.
A CBI court had on May 1 allowed Jaitly to visit Singapore from May 30 to June 8 to attend a panel debate, but on furnishing a surety bond of Rs 3 lakh in the form of fixed deposit receipts (FDR) of a bank and instructed her not to extend her stay.
Challenging the trial court's order, Jaitly has sought a reduction in the surety amount, saying she is 65 years old and is not engaged in any monetarily gainful employment.
Claiming that even her entire savings collectively would not amount to Rs 3 lakh, Jaitly has said that earlier she had applied for and was duly granted permission to travel abroad as many as 5 times and always had to deposit Rs 25,000 as FDR.
She has alleged even though her application was allowed, the trial court has indirectly fettered her right to travel abroad by imposing the "onerous" condition of Rs 3 lakh.
The case of bribe against Jaitly was lodged on the basis of a sting 'Operation Westend,' conducted by news portal tehelka.Com in 2001, exposing alleged corruption in defence deals.
George Fernandes, founder of Samata party, was the Defence Minister at that time.(MORE)
