SC dismisses PIL on probe into FM's wife case

Terming it as misconceived, the Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a PIL seeking CBI inquiry into the circumstances in which Finance Minister P Chidambaram's wife Nalini was engaged as a counsel in tax cases involving huge revenue.

A Bench comprising Justice Y K Sabharwal, Justice C K Thakker and Justice R V Raveendran declined to entertain the petition filed by a Bangalore-based advocate B A Raghu Mohan Reddy contending how was it possible that the finance minister was not knowing that his wife had filed vakalatnama in matters pertaining to the Central Board of Direct Taxes.

After AIADMK had raked the issue, CBDT regretted the embarrassment caused to Chidambaram by engaging his wife as special counsel in a tax case in Chennai.

CBDT had said it's proposal for engagement of counsel are not submitted to the finance minister for approval and in the Chennai matters also the file was not put up to him.