Arvind Kejriwal drops Supreme Court plea against Delhi HC’s interim stay on bail order

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will now challenge the Delhi High Court’s final order confirming the stay on bail granted to him in the ED’s excise policy case

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal withdrew his plea against the Delhi HC's interim stay on his bail in the excise policy case. (PTI)

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday withdrew from the Supreme Court his plea challenging the Delhi High Court’s June 21 order imposing an interim stay on bail granted to him by the trial court in the excise policy case. He said he would file a fresh petition challenging the high court’s final order, passed on Tuesday, confirming the stay.

Appearing for the Delhi chief minister, senior advocate A M Singhvi made the request to withdraw the plea before a vacation bench of Justices Manoj Misra and S V N Bhatti and the bench allowed it and dismissed the plea as withdrawn.

“Events are overtaking us every day. The judgment has come which has all kinds of issues, including a remarkable point…that the High Court order was binding, in which your lordships have given leave and granted us liberty to apply for bail,” submitted Singhvi. “In a 2022 interrogation and notice by CBI, we are arrested yesterday, rearrested while under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.”

“Be that as it may, I think there will be no option for me, but to challenge this substantively, properly, in a properly constituted SLP with all these new grounds etc.. So I am seeking your lordships’ liberty to withdraw, but with express liberty that I will be challenging both the June 21 order—which I am already before your lordships—and now more importantly, the June 25 order,” Singhvi added.

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Additional Solicitor-General S V Raju, appearing for the Enforcement Directorate, contended that Kejriwal cannot challenge the June 21 order, but only the June 25 order.

Singhvi objected to this, “My friend gets a stay application and I can’t challenge!”

The bench disposed of the plea allowing Singhvi’s request.

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On June 21, Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain of the Delhi High Court put on hold for “two-three days” the trial court order granting bail to Kejriwal. Arrested by the ED on March 21 in a money-laundering case linked to the excise policy case being investigated separately by the CBI, Kejriwal approached the Supreme Court against the high court decision.

On Tuesday, the CBI also arrested him in the excise policy scam case.

Ananthakrishnan G

Ananthakrishnan G. is a Senior Assistant Editor with The Indian Express. He has been in the field for over 23 years, kicking off his journalism career as a freelancer in the late nineties with bylines in The Hindu. A graduate in law, he practised in the District judiciary in Kerala for about two years before switching to journalism. His first permanent assignment was with The Press Trust of India in Delhi where he was assigned to cover the lower courts and various commissions of inquiry. He reported from the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court of India during his first stint with The Indian Express in 2005-2006. Currently, in his second stint with The Indian Express, he reports from the Supreme Court and writes on topics related to law and the administration of justice. Legal reporting is his forte though he has extensive experience in political and community reporting too, having spent a decade as Kerala state correspondent, The Times of India and The Telegraph. He is a stickler for facts and has several impactful stories to his credit. ... Read More

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