NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday advised Karti Chidambaram , a first-time MP from Tamil Nadu, to “pay attention” to his constituency rather than frequently travelling to foreign countries, and rejected his plea for a refund of Rs 10 crore he had deposited as security for going abroad.

Karti, who was elected from Sivaganga , a constituency represented seven times since 1984 by his father and former finance minister P Chidambaram, had moved an application seeking refund of one of the two tranches of Rs 10 crore each deposited by him.

A vacation bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Aniruddha Bose told his counsel Shally Bhasin in a lighter vein that “every time you (Karti) seek permission to go abroad, you have to deposit Rs 10 crore”. Noticing that Karti had been frequently requesting for SC permission to travel abroad, the CJI-led bench said it would be better if he was to “pay more attention to your constituency”.

When Bhasin persisted with her request for refund of Rs 10 crore, the bench said, “We will give you Rs 10 crore, but the next time you seek permission to go abroad, we will ask you to deposit Rs 20 crore. Is that acceptable to you?” Bhasin requested the court not to pass such an order and the bench dismissed the plea.

On January 30, a bench of CJI Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna had permitted Karti to go to the UK and France from February 10 to 26 and Spain from March 23 to 31. But it had attached a number of conditions, including depositing Rs 10 crore as security with the SC.

On May 7, the same CJI-led bench had allowed Karti to travel to the UK, US and France between May 9 and 21 and Germany and Spain between June 7 and 25 and attached identical conditions, including depositing an additional Rs 10 crore.

On January 30, while allowing him to travel abroad, the SC had warned him that he would face the rigour of the law if he failed to cooperate in the Enforcement Directorate’s probe into Aircel-Maxis and INX Media cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

In January, Karti had sought the court’s permission to go abroad saying he was required to travel to France, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom over the course of the next few months in respect of various international tennis tournaments organised by Totus Tennis Ltd, which was incorporated in the UK on March 13, 2015 as a subsidiary of Chess Global Advisory Services Pvt Ltd of which he is the main shareholder and director.

“As part of its business, Totus makes organisation and logistical arrangements for various ATP and WTA tennis tournaments in Europe. The next few months are the busiest part of tennis calendar in Europe as a host of tournaments are organised and played over the spring and summer months,” he said.

Karti said his presence in the UK was required for the review and operational meetings of Totus between January 21 and 27 for conducting ATP and WTA tournaments in France, Spain and Germany from February till June.

