The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed P. Chidambaram’s anticipatory bail application in the CBI case as “infructuous” while extending till Tuesday the interim protection from arrest in the Enforcement Directorate case.

In a second setback, it cited technical grounds to ask the Congress leader to file a fresh petition challenging Thursday’s trial court order remanding him in CBI custody till August 26 — a remand that was on Monday extended till August 30.

The bench of Justices R. Banumathi and A.S. Bopanna also allowed Chidambaram to seek regular bail from the trial court.

It passed the directions after prolonged arguments from senior advocate Kapil Sibal on Chidambaram’s behalf. Solicitor-general Tushar Mehta will be heard on Tuesday before the top court passes further directions in the ED case.

Chidambaram is being probed for alleged corruption in the grant of Foreign Investment Promotion Board clearance to INX Media in 2007 when he was finance minister. The CBI is probing alleged bribery and the ED is investigating a money-laundering angle.

On Friday, the bench had given Chidambaram interim relief from arrest in the ED case till Monday, when three of his pleas were to be heard.

One of the pleas challenged Thursday’s trial court remand order while the other two contested Tuesday’s Delhi High Court judgment denying him anticipatory bail against possible arrests by the CBI and the ED.

But on Monday the top court decided his anticipatory bail plea in the CBI case had become “infructuous” since the agency had already arrested him.

Sibal and senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi stressed the plea had been filed before Chidambaram’s arrest on Wednesday night, but the court was unimpressed.

The bench also pointed out that the plea against Thursday’s trial court order had been moved as an application in the Special Leave Petition challenging the high court’s rejection of his anticipatory bail plea.

“We cannot convert the SLP challenging the Delhi High Court order. You may have grounds but for that you file a fresh petition,” the bench said.

Justice Banumathi said the fresh petition can be listed only by the Chief Justice of India for hearing.

Sibal said that during 26 hours of questioning in custody so far, the CBI had not asked Chidambaram a single question relating to the alleged corruption, nor any other serious question.

“The only question asked was if he has an account with Coutts (a British bank) and if he has a Twitter account,” he said.

When Mehta handed over a sealed cover, purportedly containing material against Chidambaram, on behalf of the ED, Sibal objected saying he had a right to know what material the agency was relying on so he could advance his arguments.

“To hand over documents in a sealed cover is entirely inconsistent with the fundamental rights of a person, that too when the documents are not being shown to the accused,” he said.

He said the ED must explain why Chidambaram had never been confronted with these documents.