The Delhi High Court on Monday issued notice on a petition filed by British national Christian Michel James — the alleged middleman in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal — challenging a trial court’s refusal to release him from prison. A division bench of Justices Vivek Chaudhary and Manoj Jain has sought responses from the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and the Union Ministry of Home Affairs on both the maintainability and merits of the plea. The matter will be heard next on December 9.
Michel has approached the High Court against the trial court’s August 7 order dismissing his request for release. He argued that he has already served the maximum prescribed sentence of seven years in the cases in which he was extradited to India. Represented by advocate Aljio K Joseph, Michel contended that continued incarceration violates Section 21 of the Extradition Act, 1962.
According to the petition, Michel has spent five years in jail in India and had already undergone five years of pre-extradition detention. The plea states that he will complete seven years of imprisonment — without parole or remission — on December 4.
The trial court had rejected Michel’s plea, citing that he faces serious offences including forgery under Section 467 of the Indian Penal Code, which carries a potential sentence of life imprisonment. The court held that since a higher punishment is prescribed for these offences, it could not be said that Michel had undergone the period of maximum punishment.
The trial court also relied on a 2023 Supreme Court judgment that found Michel was extradited not only for cheating and criminal conspiracy but also for money laundering. The court concluded that the prosecution on connected offences did not violate the doctrine of speciality under Article 17 of the India-UAE Extradition Treaty or Section 21 of the Extradition Act.
Michel’s petition disputes that finding. He argued that the order illegally gives primacy to Section 17 of the India-UAE treaty over Section 21 of the Act. The plea notes that the CBI initially invoked only Sections 8, 9, and 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act — each carrying a maximum sentence of five years before the 2018 amendment. Through supplementary charge sheets, Section 467 IPC was later added on the strength of the treaty clause permitting prosecution for connected offences.
Michel was extradited to India from the UAE in December 2018. He was granted bail by the Supreme Court in the CBI case in February 2024 and by the Delhi High Court in the ED case on March 4. However, he remains in custody for failing to meet the bail condition of depositing his passport.
According to the CBI, senior government and Air Force officials allegedly manipulated the mandatory service ceiling requirement in 2004 to favour AgustaWestland in the ₹3,726.9-crore VVIP helicopter contract. The agency alleges a loss of approximately ₹2,666 crore to the government. The ED is separately investigating the money trail related to alleged kickbacks routed through intermediaries.
The High Court will now examine whether Michel’s continued detention is legally sustainable in light of extradition terms and sentencing limits. The matter is set to come up again on December 9.
