Arvind Kejriwal on bail: The Delhi High Court on Friday (21 June) put an interim stay on the lower court’s order granting bail to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the money laundering case related to the alleged excise scam. The court said that the subordinate court’s order granting bail to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will not be effective until the court hears the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) petition challenging the bail in the money laundering case related to the alleged excise scam.
Debate in Delhi High Court
The ED mentioned its appeal challenging the order of the subordinate court before a bench of Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain and Justice Ravinder Dudeja. The bench said that the matter will come to them soon and after that the hearing will take place. The High Court said that till then the order of the subordinate court will not be followed.
The hearing of the case was fixed for some time later. Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the ED, sought a stay on the lower court order passed on Thursday evening, saying that the agency was not given a fair opportunity to present its case. He said that the court pronounced the verdict on June 20 at around 8 pm and a copy of the order has not been made available to him yet.
‘We did not get a full opportunity to argue the case’
SV Raju argued that even after the order was passed, when ED lawyers requested the subordinate court to suspend its order for 48 hours so that they could approach the High Court, their request was not considered.
SV Raju said, “My arguments were not even heard. I was not given a reasonable time of two to three days to file written arguments. This cannot be done. My case is very strong on the basis of facts. The subordinate court said to finish the arguments in half an hour because they have to pronounce the verdict. They did not give us a full opportunity to argue the case.”
He said, “I am making the allegation with all seriousness. According to section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the public prosecutor should be given an opportunity to present his side, but I was not given that opportunity. SV Raju said, “The order should be stayed and the petition should be heard as soon as possible. This order cannot be allowed to be implemented even for a day.”
What argument did Kejriwal’s lawyer give?
Senior advocates Abhishek Singhvi and Vikram Choudhary, appearing for Kejriwal, opposed the petition and said that the allegations levelled by the ED counsel are clearly false and it is surprising that they cannot accept anything with dignity.
Singhvi said, “Shouting and heated arguments will not solve this problem. There are 10 such decisions of the Supreme Court which say that cancelling or reversing bail is completely different from granting bail.” According to the Bar and Bench report, Abhishek Singhvi argued that interim stay on bail orders is imposed in cases related to terrorists etc., who are dangerous or who are likely to flee after getting bail.
Vikram Chaudhary said, “This person (Kejriwal) was released by the Supreme Court. The apex court gave him freedom. This would be like making a mockery of justice. We are against this and we should be given an opportunity to be heard. We will also present our arguments.”
Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on March 21. Shortly before the arrest, the Delhi High Court had refused to grant protection from arrest to Kejriwal on his petition challenging the summons issued to him.
(With PTI inputs)
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