No immediate relief for Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, as a bench of the Supreme Court has adjourned his plea which had challenged Delhi High Court's stay order on his bail till June 26.
The vacation bench of the top court led by Justice Manoj Misra and Justice S V N Bhatti said that 'what we propose to do was, let the Delhi HC order come on record and we can keep the case next week. Without the order how do we proceed,' while adjourning Kejriwal's petition to June 26, Wednesday.
The jailed CM of Delhi had filed a plea against the Delhi High Court order which has put his bail on hold granted by a trial court in a money laundering case linked to the Delhi Liquor policy case.
The Delhi CM's counsel did questioned the way the bail was put on hold by the High Court, the ED did say that the trial court accepted the fact that it had passed the bail order without going through all the case records thoroughly.
Appearing for Kejriwal, Senior Advocate AM Singhvi contended: "Contrary to Your Lordships well-established norms that a bail granted is very different from a bail reversed or cancelled. The procedure of staying bail on the first day, first attempt, first challenge is unprecedented."
He also added that Arvind Kejriwal is not a flight risk and not somebody who can be controlled.
Also appearing for the Delhi CM, Senior Advocate Vikram Chaudhary said: "no doubt, serious allegations have been made, but he has not been convicted. He does not have any criminal antecedents, he is not a threat to the society,"
However, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta has clarified that the interim bail granted to Arvind Kejriwal only for the limited purpose of campaigning for the elections.
On May 10, the SC had granted Kejriwal bail till June 01 to participate in election campaigns. The top court had asked him to surrender on June 02. Arvind Kejriwal has been locked up in Tihar Jail since March 21 for his alleged involvement in Excise Policy case.
