'Personal reasons': Delhi HC judge won't hear Karti Chidambaram's plea in China visa case; two others already recused

NEW DELHI: Delhi high court judge Justice Girish Kathpalia on Friday recused himself from hearing Congress MP Karti Chidambaram's petition in the alleged Chinese visa scam case, citing "personal reasons."

He said, “I don't think I would be able to hear this. Subject to orders of the learned judge in charge, criminal side, list before some other bench for personal reasons,” according to news agency PTI.

The matter is now scheduled to be heard next on January 28.

Justice Kathpalia follows two other Delhi high court judges, Justices Swarana Kanta Sharma and Anup J Bhambani, who had also recused themselves from hearing the case.

On January 15, Justice Sharma directed that the matter be placed before another bench. Four days later, Justice Bhambani passed a similar order.

Justice Kathpalia was sworn in as a Delhi high court judge in July 2024. He had earlier recused himself from a case in September 2025, having dealt with the same matter as a principal district and sessions judge.

In his petition, Chidambaram, the Lok Sabha MP from Tamil Nadu's Sivaganga and son of Congress veteran and former Union minister P Chidambaram, has challenged the framing of charges of corruption and conspiracy against him in the case, which is being probed by the CBI.

In December last year, a trial court had ordered the framing of charges for criminal conspiracy and corruption against Karti Chidambaram and six others in the case.

His petition argues that the trial court "did not apply its judicial mind to the material and documents on record, completely ignoring evidence and statements of witnesses that demonstrate the absence of criminality."

In October 2024, the CBI filed a chargesheet against Karti Chidambaram and others in connection with alleged bribery in facilitating visas for Chinese nationals for the Talwandi Sabo Power Limited (TSPL) project in 2011, when his father was the Union home minister.

The central agency had filed the chargesheet after a two-year probe into its FIR registered in 2022. The FIR alleged that the Punjab-based TSPL was setting up a 1,980 MW thermal power plant, with work outsourced to the Chinese company Shandong Electric Power Construction Corp (SEPCO).

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