New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday granted interim bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the Delhi liquor policy case till June 1. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta heard the matter. The bail was granted to Kejriwal for campaigning in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. He will have to surrender and go back to jail on June 2.
The bench refused the request of senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Kejriwal, that the interim bail be granted till June 5 -- a day after the votes are counted on June 4.
The apex court is hearing Kejriwal's plea challenging Delhi High Court's last month verdict upholding his arrest in the case. The matter relates to alleged corruption and money laundering in the formulation and execution of the Delhi government's now scrapped excise policy for 2021-22. The AAP leader was arrested on March 21 and is currently lodged in Tihar Jail under judicial custody.
ED's arguments
ED filed a new affidavit yesterday opposing the grant of interim bail for Kejriwal for election campaigning. ED said that an election campaign cannot be a ground for bail as it is not a fundamental or legal right. ED also said that granting bail would create a wrong precedent.
The right to campaign in an election is neither a fundamental nor a constitutional right, the Enforcement Directorate told the Supreme Court on Thursday, a day ahead of the scheduled pronouncement of the court's order on grant of interim bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a money laundering case.
Pointing out that Kejriwal has not filed petitions for regular or interim bail before the apex court or any other court, the ED said the consistent approach of this court has been to relegate parties to the remedy of bail under CrPC when they had challenged their arrest claiming it to be illegal.
It referred to the orders passed by the court in the cases of former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, AAP leader Sanjay Singh and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K Kavitha, where the court asked them to move bail petitions in the money laundering case related to the Delhi excise policy scam.
The agency said such an approach would violate the cherished values of the Constitution which upholds the rule of law as a basic feature meaning thereby that "howsoever high you might be you are not above the law".
On May 7, the bench, also comprising Justice Dipankar Datta, had reserved its verdict on whether or not to grant Kejriwal interim bail in the money laundering case linked to the alleged excise scam.
A Delhi court had, the same day, extended Kejriwal's judicial custody in the case till May 20. The Delhi High Court had last month upheld the AAP leader'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.
