‘If at all we grant…don’t want you performing official duties’: SC defers order on Kejriwal’s interim bail plea

Presiding over a two-judge bench, Justice Sanjiv Khanna said, “We are very clear…if at all we grant interim bail, we don’t want you to be performing your official duties…it may have cascading effects.”

The Enforcement Directorate (ED), meanwhile, stoutly opposed the suggestion for interim relief and urged the court not to carve out a separate class for politicians just because they want to campaign for elections.

“It is the election season. He is elected chief minister of Delhi. The elections are around the corner. These are extraordinary situations. It’s not normal…… he is not otherwise a habitual or somebody who has been involved in any other case,” Justice Khanna said.

Responding to this, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for the ED told the bench also comprising Justice Dipankar Datta, “What example we are setting? He is a chief minister and wants to campaign, and therefore he (should be granted interim bail?)”

“Please don’t make an exception. Would send a very wrong message and demoralise a real common man”, Sol Gen Tushar Mehta for ED tells SC opposing its suggestion that it will hear arguments on the question whether or not to grant interim bail to Arvind Kejriwal. @IndianExpress

— Ananthakrishnan G (@axidentaljourno) May 7, 2024

Solicitor General Mehta added, “A person who is an agriculturist, he has to show his seeds for harvest, there is a season. Is he less important than a chief minister? Is it less important than campaigning?…what are we doing?” The senior law officer said, “My emphatic submission is there cannot be any deviation nearly because a person is a chief minister”.

Mehta said, “We tried to find out how many politicians are in jail. There are approximately 5,000-odd cases of MP/MLAs only. If we take at least half of them to be not out on bail, would not be entitled to come out and campaign for their parties? Are we carving out an exception as a class for politicians, a class because the election is going on and he needs to campaign. Would he be more important… than a common man filling several statutory forms and running a Kirana shop?”

“There are issues which require consideration. We cannot decide the bail application if you are going to take time. The elections are around the corner, and we will not be able to decide by the end of this month…We wanted it to be decided before the vacations,” Justice Khanna said.

He disagreed with the comparison with agriculturalists and said “national elections are held once in five years. It is not harvesting which takes place every six months or four months. So that’s completely different”.

“We certainly do not want that politicians or political executive who are involved in crimes should be treated separately,” Justice Khanna said.

Mehta said Kejriwal “was called six months back in October 2023. He goes for meditation and then cites other excuses. Then he says your summons is bad in law, becomes a judge in his own cause. Thereafter there was no other option left and we had to approach the court of law and when the court issued summons, thereafter he was arrested. He wasted six months if he would have come and cooperated, maybe his arrest would not have been required. Or maybe he would have been arrested, he would file for bail and he would have been out on bail if he feels he has a very strong case”.

“He chooses not to cooperate when he is compelled by a court of law and he is arrested. He says that now I don’t have time…I have [to] campaign in the election… You could have cooperated when you were called six months back,” Mehta said.

Mehta said there are many matters that cannot be completed in time before courts. “But do you request interim bail on ground of that?” he asked. “All are equal, but some are more equal, let that message not go from this court,” Mehta said.