Order on interim bail for Arvind Kejriwal to be pronounced on May 10

The Bench has divided the hearing on Mr. Kejriwal’s petition against his arrest into two parts

Locals watch as a large banner of jailed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal hangs from the balcony of a building during his wife Sunita Kejriwal’s election roadshow for the Lok Sabha polls, in New Delhi, Saturday, April 27, 2024. | Photo Credit: PTI

Supreme Court judge, Justice Sanjiv Khanna, told the counsel for the Directorate of Enforcement that the court would pronounce on May 10 its order on the grant of interim bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the excise policy case.

“We will pronounce the interim order on Friday,” Justice Khanna, who was heading a three-judge Special Bench, informed Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju on May 9.

Mr. Raju had appeared for the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in the case emanating from a petition filed by Mr. Kejriwal challenging his arrest on March 21, days ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

A two-judge Bench of Justices Khanna and Dipankar Datta had heard arguments on the question of interim bail on May 7 even as Mr. Kejriwal was remanded for the sixth time to judicial custody, till May 20, by the trial judge.

The court had raised the question of interim bail to allow Mr. Kejriwal to campaign at the head of his party, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), for the general elections.

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The ED had objected to the idea, saying bail for a “criminal” politician to canvas votes was hardly a fundamental right, but a luxury a “real aam aadmi” could not even dream of.

The Bench had however said it would be wrong on the part of Mr. Kejriwal, assuming he got interim bail, to exercise his official duties or sign files.

“Such a development would have a cascading effect,” Justice Khanna had observed on May 7.

Senior advocate A.M. Singhvi, appearing for Mr. Kejriwal, had pleaded that a restriction like that would be “humiliating” for a sitting Chief Minister. The excise policy was chucked long ago. The senior lawyer argued that Mr. Kejriwal had been functioning in office from August 2022, when the FIR in the case was registered.

Mr. Singhvi had finally proposed the Chief Minister himself giving a statement to stay away from official duties if given bail, rather than the court passing an order to that effect.