The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it might pass an order on Friday (May 10), on interim bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in an alleged money laundering case registered by Directorate of Enforcement in Delhi excise policy case.
As a bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna was rising for the day, he told the Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju, who appears for the Directorate of Enforcement in Kejriwal matter that it may pass the order on interim relief to Delhi Chief Minister on Friday.
On Tuesday (May 7), a bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta had indicated granting interim bail to Kejriwal to enable him to campaign for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. However, the court had said that if interim bail is granted, Kejriwal would not be allowed to discharge any official duties as Chief Minister.
The Solicitor General Tushar Mehta representing the Directorate of Enforcement had vehemently opposed any grant of interim bail to Kejriwal, urging the bench not to treat politicians as a separate category. He had contended that all were equal before the law, be it a Chief Minister or a commoner.
“How can a Chief Minister be treated differently than a aam aadmi. There can’t be any deviation only because he is a Chief Minister. Would campaigning for elections be more important?” the Solicitor General had told the bench pointing out that the electioneering is a luxury.
“We are dealing with the Chief Minister of the capital and he has evaded summons for six months. Please do not make an exception as it would demoralise a real common man and it shows that if you are holding a position then you will get benefit”, the Solicitor General had told the bench.
However, the bench had said, “We grant bail in exceptional cases. He is not a repeat offender” and “We cannot ignore this aspect (ongoing general elections).”
Kejriwal has approached the top court challenging the Delhi High Court’s April 9, 2024, order rejecting his plea against his arrest by the ED and the subsequent remand. The top court had asked the Enforcement Directorate to respond to Kejriwal’s plea.
Kejriwal in his plea against the High Court order has contended that his arrest after announcement of the General Elections is “motivated by extraneous considerations”. Describing his arrest as “motivated”, Kejriwal has contended that a sitting Chief Minister has been arrested in the middle of election cycle and especially after the announcement of the schedule of the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
The petition by Kejriwal against the High Court order says that the statements and material relied upon by the ED against him was in its possession for the last niner months but why it acted when general elections were on.
These statements relied upon as grounds of arrest were recorded by the ED from December 7, 2022, till July 27, 2023 and subsequently no further material has been collected against Kejriwal, states the petition.
“Moreover, such statements and material were in possession of the Enforcement Directorate for the last nine months and still the arrest has been made illegally in the middle of general election 2024”, says the petition by Kejriwal.
The petition says that Kejriwal’s arrest also constitutes an “unprecedented assault on the tenets of democracy” based on “free and fair elections” and “federalism”, both of which form significant constituents of the basic structure of the Constitution.