AgustaWestland Case: Delhi High Court Refuses To Entertain Christian Michel's Plea Against India-UAE Extradition Treaty

The Delhi High Court on Monday (November 17) refused to entertain a petition filed by AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam accused Christian Michel, challenging Article 17 of the India-UAE extradition treaty, executed back in the year 1999.

Michel was extradited from Dubai under this treaty in December 2018. He argued that ordinarily, a requesting State (in this case India) can only prosecute an extradited person for offences for which extradition is sought. However, Article 17 enables the Indian government to prosecute him even for offences "connected therewith".

The division bench of Justices Vivek Chaudhary and Manoj Jain refused to entertain the plea, stating,

“No consequential relief is sought. Why should we simply declare? File a better petition...you have two options— liberty to file afresh...or you'll argue we'll hear and decide. But then we'll not grant any relief. Declaration can only be given when there is a cause of action. We can't just declare. Where is the cause of action?”

The judges further explained that the treaty has not been passed by the Parliament and thus, it's not a law which can be declared illegal.

“It (Treaty) is not passed by the Parliament. It's like a Bill, which is not law…You're saying there's some treaty between two countries. It's not a law, it's like a proposed Bill. A proposed Bill can't be declared ultra vires,” they said orally.

As such, the plea was withdrawn with liberty to file a fresh petition.

Michel is termed as a 'Middleman' for the alleged illegal transactions that took place in the VVIP chopper scam.

The CBI had alleged that there was an estimated loss of Euro 398.21 million (about 2666 Crore) to the exchequer in the deal that was signed on February 8, 2010 for the supply of VVIP choppers worth Euro 556.262 million.

ED had then filed a chargesheet against Michel in June, 2016, alleging that he had received EUR 30 million (about Rs 225 crore) from AgustaWestland.

Advocates Aljo Joseph, Sriram Parakkat and MS Vishnu Shankar appeared for the petitioner.

Case: CHRISTIAN MICHEL JAMES V/s UNION OF INDIA AND ORS

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Del) 1513