Apex Court Issues Notice In Arvind Kejriwal's Plea Challenging High Court's Order Upholding Arrest; To Be Heard In Week Commencing April 29
|The Supreme Court issues notice in 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.
During the hearing before, the Bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta, Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi appeared for Kejriwal, and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared for the ED.
Singhvi submitted, "I am asking for an extremely short date...I want to take 5 minutes by the clock and not more than that. A lot of selective leaks all over the place are giving everybody a wrong impression."
Justice Khanna said, "I am not aware of selective leaks....let a notice be issued Mr. Singhvi."
"How can I possibly oppose the issue of notice? I am not seeking an extremely short date, on this Friday for a reason, allow me to state that reason, it will take less than 3 or 4 minutes. There are six categories," Singhvi submitted.
To this, Justice Khanna insisted, "Mr. Dr. Singhvi, we will give a reasonable date, a short date, but not what you are saying; that is not possible."
Singhvi contended, "This is a very unsual matter, not because he is a Chief Minister, because number 1, there are five...there are eight chargesheets between the CBI and the ED. This Petitioner is not named, point number 1, point number 2, the story starts from September 2022, he is arrested on 16th March 2024, between that time, there are 15 statements, 9 by one person and 6 by others, all 15 statements do not state the above..."
"Reserve your arguments for the next date," Justice Khanna remarked.
The Bench said, "Issue notice, returnable in the week commencing April 29."
Accordingly, the matter is scheduled for hearing in the week commencing from April 29.
It is to be noted that on April 10, Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi had 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 had told the Apex Court that the High Court's Judgment was passed based on unrelied documents that were suppressed from them.
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.