Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will have to remain in jail a bit longer even after Rouse Avenue court granted him bail last week. The Supreme Court, on Monday, said it will hear Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor’s plea against Delhi High Court stay order on his bail on Wednesday (June 26).
On June 21, the Delhi HC reserved orders on the Enforcement Directorate’s appeal and informed that it would pronounce its verdict in a couple of days. In the meantime, the trial court order was stayed, the high court said.
A bench of Justices Manoj Misra and SVN Bhatti, hearing the stay application, said: “We deem it appropriate that the case be listed the day after and if High Court passes an order meanwhile, then let that be brought on record.”
‘Why SC can’t stay Delhi HC order?’
During the arguments on Monday, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the Delhi HC did not wait for the trial court’s bail order before putting a hold on it.
“If the High Court can stay it without seeing the order, why can’t your lordships stay the High Court order” he argued.
Justice Misra retorted to this, saying: “If the High Court has committed a mistake, should we repeat it?”
Singhvi went on to say that the stay on the bail order was unprecedented and declared that Kejriwal was not a flight risk. The bench indicated that the final order could be expected imminently and advised all parties to wait patiently. At this, Singhvi raised concerns about the loss of time after obtaining bail.
“Why can’t I be free in the interim? I have a judgment in my favour,” Singhvi said.
Justice Misra replied: “If we pass an order now, we will be prejudging the issue. It is not a subordinate court, it is a High Court.”
“Normally, in stay applications, orders are not reserved. They are passed on spot. It is a bit unusual. Anyway, we will have it day after tomorrow,” Justice Misra said.
Questioning the urgency, the apex court asked why waiting for a day would be problematic.
On June 20, Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court granted bail to Kejriwal to Kejriwal in now-scrapped Delhi excise policy case. Vacation Judge Niyay Bindu asked the Delhi CM to furnish a bail bond of Rs 1 lakh.
The ED had requested the court to grant it 48 hours to accept bail bonds so that order can be challenged in the higher court.
However, the judge refused to stay the order and said that the bail bond is to be produced before the duty judge on Friday.
The very next morning (Friday, June 21), the ED filed a petition challenging the trial court’s order and argued that it did not get adequate time to make its case against Kejriwal’s bail plea in the trial court.
After hearing the ED’s plea the high court reserved the order on Kejriwal’s bail.
Kejriwal was arrested by ED on March 21 in the money laundering case linked to the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy of 2021-22, on allegations that he conspired to deliberately leave loopholes in the policy for the benefit of certain liquor sellers.
The ED alleged that Kejriwal’s party – AAP – used kickbacks received for this arrangement to fund its elections in Goa. The Delhi CM counter-alleged that the probe agency has no proof to back up its allegations and that it is running an extortion racket.
Kejriwal was granted interim bail after a May 10 order by the Supreme Court so that he could campaign for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He returned to jail on June 2.
With inputs from agencies
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Won’t prejudge: SC says will wait for Delhi HC order on Arvind Kejriwal’s bail plea
