New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday (May 6) said that if it grants interim bail to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, he will not be allowed to perform official duties. The Aam Aadmi Party leader’s lawyer agreed to sign an undertaking to this effect, provided that the LG allows the Delhi government to function without Kejriwal’s signature on files.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta has been hearing Kejriwal’s petition against his arrest by the ED in the alleged liquor policy case. Earlier during the hearing, the court had questioned the ED regarding the timing of the arrest – coming after the announcement of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
At the hearing on Tuesday, the bench questioned Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju when he said the proceeds of crime in the case were Rs 1,100 crore. “In 2 years it becomes 1100 crores? You said proceeds of crime were 100 crores…how could it become 100s,” Justice Khanna said according to Livelaw. When Raju clarified that he was talking about benefits from the policy, Justice Khanna responded that the entirety of the profits “is not proceeds of crime”.
Raju claimed that Kejriwal’s involvement had come up during the course of the investigation, and that’s why the arrest had come at this juncture. Justice Khanna questioned why these allegations had taken two years, saying, “it is not good for any investigating agency to say that it takes 2 years to unearth”.
The judges then said that they would take up the matter of interim bail today, as this was an extraordinary circumstance. “He is elected CM of Delhi. There are elections…These are extraordinary circumstances. He’s not a habitual,” Justice Khanna said. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta intervened then to say this would set a bad example, and “Are other people less important than CM?”
“That’s separate. Elections are held once in 5 years,” Justice Khanna said. “We don’t appreciate this. We certainly do not want that politicians who are involved in crimes be treated differently.”
Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Kejriwal, reiterated that he was not asking for special treatment, but that there were no grounds for the arrest to begin with. The bench asked whether he would go back to the chief minister’s office if released, to which Singhvi said “there is no prohibition”.
“Suppose we release you, and you are allowed to participate in elections, you will be performing official duties…it can have cascading effects…We make it clear, we don’t want you to be performing official duties if we release you,” Justice Khanna said. “If elections were not there, there would be no question of interim bail,” Justice Datta added.
“I will make a statement that he will not sign any files, with a condition that LG may not stop any work on the ground that I have not signed any file,” Singhvi responded.
A day ahead of this hearing, Delhi lieutenant-governor (LG) V.K. Saxena had recommended a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into allegations of the Delhi chief minister receiving political funding from the banned Sikhs for Justice organisation. The Aam Aadmi Party had said this is a move by a “rattled” Bharatiya Janata Party.
