The Delhi High Court on Monday (November 24, 2025) sought responses from the Centre, CBI and ED on a plea by alleged middleman Christian Michel James, an accused in the ₹3,600-crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam case, challenging a provision of the India-UAE extradition treaty.
A bench of Justices Vivek Chaudhary and Manoj Jain asked the Home Ministry, External Affairs Ministry, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to file their objections regarding maintainability of Michel's petition.
The High Court listed the matter for next hearing on April 9, 2026.
In his petition, Mr. Michel has challenged Article 17 of the treaty, signed in 1999, which allows the requesting state (in this case India) to prosecute extradited persons not only for the specific offence for which extradition was done, but also for connected offences.
The lawyer for Mr. Michel, who was extradited from Dubai in December 2018 under this treaty, argued that an extradited person can be prosecuted only for the offences for which the extradition took place, and not for connected offences.
