Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said that there was no violation of rules in the grant of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval to Aircel-Maxis deal in 2006. Reacting to the CBI charge sheet over his decision in the case, Chidambaram said that the case was submitted through the Additional Secretary and Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs to him in which they had recommended for approval and he has approved it in the normal course.

On Friday, the CBI in its charge sheet in the Aircel-Maxis case, told a special court that Chidambaram granted the approval to the Mauritius based Global Communication Services Holdings company, a subsidiary of Maxis, for 800 million dollars. The agency said, the Finance Minister was competent to accord approval of projects up to 600 crore rupees and proposal beyond this required approval of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) .