Aircel-Maxis Case | Madras High Court Issues Notice To ED In Karti Chidambaram's Plea Against Provisional Attachment Of Properties

The Madras High Court, on Tuesday (December 9) issued notice to the ED in Karti P Chidambaram's plea challenging an order of the Appellate Tribunal for SAFEMA, FEMA, PMLA, NDPS, PBPT ACT, dismissing his appeal against a provisional attachment order in connection with the Aircel-Maxis case.

The bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G Arul Murugan issued notice to the Joint Director, Directorate of Enforcement, returnable by 3 weeks. 

It may be noted that Karti Chidambaram has challenged the order passed by the Appellate Tribunal on June 5, 2025, dismissing his appeal under Section 26 of the PMLA against the order of the Adjudicating Authority under PMLA, which had confirmed the provisional attachment of his property worth Rs. 1.16 Crore. The properties were attached by the Directorate in connection with the Aircel-Maxis cases.

In his plea, Karti argued that he was not named as an accused in the chargesheet filed by the CBI in the Aircel-Maxis case in 2014. He stated that in 2017, the Special Judge had discharged all accused persons, and despite this, on September 23, 2017, the ED issued the provisional attachment order against him.

He stated that the ED had filed a complaint with the adjudicating authority after issuing the provisional attachment order. The adjudicating authority passed its order confirming the attachment on March 12, 2018.

Karti submitted that as per Section 8(3)(a) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (as it stood at the time of the conformation order), a conformation order could continue only during the pendency of proceedings relating to any offence under the PMLA. He submitted that on the date of the confirmation order, there were no proceedings pending against him and thus, the confirmation order was a dead letter and the right to attach stood extinguished.

It was further stated that on May 2, 2018, an appeal was preferred against the order of the adjudicating authority and on May 28, 2018, the Appellate Tribunal had issued an interim order in favour of Karti Chidambaram. 

Subsequently, on June 13, 2018,the ED filed a prosecution complaint under Section 45 of the PMLA before the special court naming Karti as an accused and on July 17, 2018, the CBI also filed a chargesheet before the special court naming him as an accused.  

It has been stated that the subsequent filing of the chargesheet would not have any effect on the provisional attachment order, and the order of the Appellate tribunal is completely erroneous and patently illegal. Thus, he has filed the present plea seeking to set aside the order of the Appellate tribunal.

Case Title: Karti P Chidambaram v, The Joint Director

Case No: CMA No. 3642 of 2025