Refusing to list Kejriwal’s plea for urgent hearing, the top court registry said, “Since the Chief Minister was given liberty to move to the trial court for regular bail, the plea is not maintainable.”
File Photo: AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal
In a setback to Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal, the Supreme Court registry on Wednesday refused to list for an urgent hearing his application for the extension of interim bail in Delhi Excise Policy case by 7 days on medical grounds, noting that that the “plea is not maintainable”.
Refusing to list Kejriwal’s plea for urgent hearing, the top court registry said, “Since the Chief Minister was given liberty to move to the trial court for regular bail, the plea is not maintainable.”
The verdict on Kejriwal’s plea challenging his arrest and subsequent remand in Delhi Excise Policy case was reserved on May 17, 2024, before the top court went into its 7-week long summer vacation.
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Kejriwal was released on May 10, 2024, for 21 days to campaign in the ongoing general election to Lok Sabha till June 1 and was ordered to surrender before the Tihar jail authorities on June 2, 2024.
Kejriwal was arrested by the Directorate of Enforcement on March 21, 2024, in an alleged money laundering case arising from Delhi Excise Policy case under Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
On Monday — May 28 — a vacation bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and KV Viswanathan had refused an urgent listing of Kejriwal’s plea for the extension of interim bail on medical grounds, stating that the same should have been mentioned last week before a vacation bench headed by Justice Dipankar Datta.
Justice Datta was a part of the bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna which had granted 21 days interim bail to Kejriwal on May 10 and had also reserved order on May 17, on his plea challenging his arrest.
Kejriwal has knocked the doors of the top court seeking an extension of his interim bail by 7 days, stating that he has to undergo PET-CT scan and other tests.
Kejriwal has claimed that since his arrest he had lost 7 kgs of weight and his Ketone level had gone very high. This could be a symptom of a serious disease. “The doctors of Max hospital are treating him at present,” he said in his plea.
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