Abhishek Singhvi Mentions Before SC Arvind Kejriwal's Plea Challenging Delhi HC's Order, Says High Court Passsed Order Based On "Unrelied Documents Supressed From Us"
Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi mentioned seeking urgent listing and hearing of Arvind Kejriwal's plea challenging a Delhi High Court's Judgment upholding his arrest in a money laundering case stemming from the Delhi excise policy scam. While mentioning, Singhvi told the Supreme Court that the High Court's Judgment was passed based on unrelied documents that were suppressed from them.
Singhvi mentioned the matter before the Bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, also comprising Justice Aniruddha Bose, Justice JB Pardiwala, and Justice Manoj Misra.
Singhvi submitted, "The Order has been passed on unrelied documents suppressed from us. I am requesting listing as early as possible."
To this, the CJI said, "I will immediately pass; don't worry. I will look at it. All emails...We were busy with the farewell (of Justice Aniruddha Bose), but I will make sure to go through all emails."
The matter is likely to be listed for hearing in the next week, commencing from April 15.
On April 9, the High Court had dismissed Kejriwal's plea against arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case related to the excise policy scam. The Single-Judge Bench had said, "This Court will not lay down two different categories of laws, one for the common citizen and another for granting special privileges to a Chief Minister." On the argument on the necessity of Arrest, the Court said, "ED has enough material against Shri Arvind Kejriwal."
On April 3, the Court had reserved the Order in Kejriwal's plea.
Pertinently, on April 1, Kejriwal was granted judicial custody till April 15. It is also to be noted that on March 27, the High Court had refused to granted any interim relief to the Chief Minister of Delhi. The Court had directed ED to file its reply in the interim Application as well as the main Writ Petition by April 2 and had clarified that no adjournment shall be granted on the date of the final hearing, i.e., April 3.
On March 28, the CM had made submissions in Hindi after taking permission from the Trial Court despite his Lawyers being present. Kejriwal had said a smokescreen of the AAP being corrupt has been created before the nation, and he had added that he is ready to face the ED probe. The submissions were made when the CM was produced on the expiration of his ED remand.
The AAP had first moved the Apex Court on Thursday (March 21) late in the evening after the ED arrested Kejriwal. The agency took him to its headquarters in Central Delhi. The Delhi CM's legal team had attempted to get a late night hearing from the Supreme Court. However, no special Supreme Court Bench was set up on Thursday night to hear the CM's plea challenging his Arrest.
The Arrest of the first sitting Chief Minister came hours after the Delhi High Court had refused to grant protection to the AAP national convenor from any coercive action by the agency.