Supreme Court registry refuses to list Arvind Kejriwal’s plea for interim bail extension for medical tests

Arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on March 21 in the Delhi excise policy case, the AAP leader was granted interim bail until June 1 for election campaigning. The bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, which granted interim bail on May 10, directed him to surrender on June 2.

On Tuesday, when Kejriwal’s request for urgent hearing of his application was mentioned by senior advocate A M Singhvi, the bench of Justices Maheshwari and Viswanathan sought to know why Kejriwal had not raised the request before Justice Dipankar Datta, one of the judges on the bench that granted him interim bail, while he was holding court until May 24.

“Why did you not mention this matter when Justice Datta was here?” Justice Maheshwari asked.

“Why didn’t you mention it? Why did you wait?… One of the learned members of the bench was holding court until Friday,” Justice Viswanathan asked.

Singhvi replied that the “prescription for tests” were “obtained… only yesterday and the day before”.

“I would have no problem putting it before the two learned judges on virtual (mode) also,” he said.

Justice Maheshwari said “in heard and reserved matters, probably we are not supposed to do anything”.

The bench then said it would refer the matter to the CJI as another bench had already heard and reserved its order on May 17.

Singhvi pointed out that the matter in which the court had reserved its order on May 17 was Kejriwal’s petition challenging his arrest and had nothing to do with medical grounds. He urged the bench to list it for hearing on Wednesday “or whatever is Your Lordships’ convenience”.

Justice Maheshwari said, “What we will do is we will refer this mentioning memo to the Hon’ble Chief Justice. Let the CJI take a decision.”

In his plea, Kejriwal has sought to surrender on June 9. Saying that he lost 6-7 kg during the period of his arrest, Kejriwal said that he could not regain weight even after his release.

Kejriwal said that sudden and unexplained weight loss, coupled with high ketone levels, could be indicative of kidney damage, serious cardiac ailments and even cancer, and early detection was essential for preventing further progress of the disease and associated life risks.

He said he had suffered many health-related complications during his arrest and blamed it partly on what he called the negligent and callous behaviour of jail authorities.

Recent test reports pointed to high blood glucose level as well as high ketone levels in urine, which indicate that in addition to increased blood sugar, he may have also developed kidney-related complications and even kidney damage, he said.

According to Kejriwal’s plea, a senior physician from Max Hospital visited him at his residence on May 25 for a health check-up and prescribed a number of medical tests, including whole body PET-CT scan to rule out any malignancy, and the Holter Monitor Test, where he will be required to wear a Holter monitor for a few days while going about his daily activities to identify any irregularities in the functioning of his heart. These tests, his plea said, are to be done in a particular sequence and require five-seven days.

Saying that his life would be at risk if he did not undergo the tests, Kejriwal said he would get all the tests done in the working week from June 3 to June 7 and surrender on June 9.