After much deliberation on the arguments made by Arvind Kejriwal’s legal team and those representing the Enforcement Directorate, the Supreme Court on Tuesday deferred its order on the Delhi chief minister’s interim bail plea. The court is likely to hear the matter day on Thursday.
There was a possibility that the Supreme Court might grant Delhi Kejriwal interim bail in view of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections today who is in custody due to an excise policy-linked money laundering case.
Earlier, the Supreme Court noted that Kejriwal does not have a history of habitual offences as it deliberated on the plea for interim bail by the Delhi chief minister. Kejriwal is presently incarcerated in Delhi’s Tihar Jail on money laundering charges associated with the discontinued liquor excise policy.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta took up as the first matter the plea of the AAP leader.
Senior Supreme Court lawyer and Congress leader AM Singhvi who is representing the Delhi chief minister told the two-judge bench that the ED had no basis to arrest Chief Minister Kejriwal on 21 March He also referred to cases of other politicians like Narayan Rane, Chandrababu Naidu and Shiv Shankar Das who all got bail under normal conditions with restrictions over giving press interviews or public comments.
Justice Datta, however, pointed out that had there been no elections happening now, there would have been no question of interim bail.
While deliberating on the interim bail plea, Justice Khanna expressed reservations that if Kejriwal is released on interim bail and he is allowed to participate in elections and he performs his official duties that might have “cascading effects. What about signing files and attending office? If you go to office, it may not be correct.”
SG Mehta pleaded that the court should clarify the role of the Delhi chief minister before allowing him to proceed on interim bail.
While dealing with the interim bail plea of the Delhi chief minister, Justice Khanna said, “When we can pass a final order, we can always pass an interim order.”
Singhvi also countered SG Mehta’s arguments that in the absence of signature of chief minister, the administration does not stop functioning.
In course of the proceedings, Justice Khanna while replying to a question set forth by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta if the apex court is setting a different example just because other people are less important than the chief minister, said, “He is elected CM of Delhi. There are elections…These are extraordinary circumstances. He’s not a habitual…”
According to LiveLaw, SG Mehta strictly opposing any interim bail to the Kejriwal said, “There can’t be any deviation only because he is a CM. Are we carving out exception for politicians? Would campaigning for elections be more important?”
However, Justice Khanna made it clear that the election is an entirely different scenario.
“That’s separate. Elections are held once in five years. We don’t appreciate this. We certainly do not want that politicians who are involved in crimes be treated differently,” Justice Khanna said. “We are not going by whether it is a politician or not…every individual would have some special or exceptional circumstances. We are considering whether exception is required in view of elections. We are not saying there has to be a different law for politicians.”
SG Mehta argued that since the Delhi chief minister is in jail, he will have to forego his right and whatever his rights are there either as MLA or as a political leader.
During his argument, SG Mehta hinted that had the Delhi chief minister cooperated his arrest may have been avoided.
“If he had cooperated, maybe he would not have been arrested. Now he says I want to campaign. All common men are at par,” SG Mehta told the court.
The Tihar turmoil begins
Kejriwal was arrested on 21 March and is currently lodged in Tihar jail under judicial custody.
On 3 May the top court had said it may consider granting him interim bail in view of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
It had told the Enforcement Directorate (ED) that arguments on Kejriwal’s plea against his arrest are likely to take time and therefore it was considering hearing the probe agency on the issue of interim bail on account of the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi. Polling will be held in Delhi on 25 May.
“It appears we can’t complete today. We will post it on Tuesday morning itself. Mr Raju, one more thing. If it is going to take time and it does appear to us that it may take some time, we will then consider the question of interim bail because of the elections,” the bench had told Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, who was wrapping up his arguments for the day.
Raju had said he would oppose bail to Kejriwal and pointed to the statements made by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh after getting bail last month in the same case. “Just look at the kind of statements he is making,” the ASG said.
The bench had said it is putting the agency on notice about the court’s intention so that it is not taken by surprise on 7 May, when the interim bail issue will be dealt with.
“We are not commenting on it either way. We are just saying we will hear on interim bail and not saying we will grant interim bail. We may or may not grant interim bail,” the top court had said.
It also told senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Kejriwal to take instructions. “Because of the position he holds, whether he should be signing official files?” it had said.
During the hearing, Singhvi told the bench that elections were announced on 16 March and Kejriwal was arrested on 21 March on the basis of statements and material which were available with the agency since last July.
The top court had issued a notice to the ED on 15 April and sought its response to Kejriwal’s plea against his arrest.
On 9 April, the Delhi High Court had upheld Kejriwal’s arrest, saying there was no illegality and the ED was left with “little option” after he skipped repeated summonses and refused to join the investigation.
The case relates to alleged corruption and money laundering in the formulation and execution of the Delhi government’s now-scrapped excise policy for 2021-22.
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SC defers order on Arvind Kejriwal’s interim bail plea, likely to take up case again on Thursday
