The Supreme Court on May 10th granted interim bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal until June 1 in the money laundering case. He has been released from Tihar jail after 50 days of judicial custody. The Court has asked him to immediately surrender to the authorities by June 2.
Arvind Kejriwal after release, addressing the crowd said, “I am feeling very happy being among you. I promised that I will be back soon. First, I would like to thank Hanuman Ji because I am present here among you all because of him.”
Interim Bail, conditions apply
During the May 7 hearing, the bench of Justice Khanna and Dipankar Datta said that it would be wrong on the part of the chief minister to exercise his official duties or sign files if we were to obtain an interim bail. “Such a development would have a cascading effect,” Justice Khanna observed.
Thus, the court set many conditions on Arvind Kejriwal for the bail provided. First, he was ordered not to sign any official files. He also shall not visit the office of the Chief Minister and Delhi Secretariat. He must also restrain himself from making any comment on his role in the Liquor scam and must not interact with any witnesses or have access to any official files connected to the case.
The Court also ordered that bail bonds of Rs 50,000/- should be furnished with one surety.
‘Politicians are not a separate class’
The appeal to grant bail faced a lot of resistance from Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Additional Solicitor General SV Raju who were present before the court presenting the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The Enforcement Directorate had filed an affidavit in court against granting bail. The affidavit said that Arvind Kejriwal was in judicial custody and there was no reason why a special prayer for a special treatment by Kejriwal must be acceded to.
“To the knowledge of the deponent no political leader has been granted interim bail for campaigning even though he is not the contesting candidate. Even a contesting candidate is not granted interim bail if he is in custody for his own campaigning…. Even the right to vote while in judicial custody which is considered by this Court as a statutory/constitutional right, is curtailed by statute by virtue of section 62(5) of the Representation of Peoples Act,…”, the top court was told.
The Solicitor General Tushar Mehta argued that political leaders should not be considered a special class and just an impression has been created that he was picked up during elections.
“Please do not earmark political leaders as a separate class, there are Managing Directors who are in jail, they can say my company is in doldrums. The impression is created that he has not done anything and during elections he is picked up. PLEASE DO NOT CONSIDER FOR ANY INTERIM RELIEF.”, SG Mehta had further told the bench.
This will open a Pandora’s box because now Amrit Pal singh also wants bail to fight the election, Mr Mehta told SC.
INDIA Alliance celebrates Kejriwal’s bail
AAP’s candidate Sahi Ram Pehelwan is holding a roadshow in South Delhi and Kejriwal is likely to participate. He said, “Today, the country is going through this dictatorial rule and is fighting against it but 140 crore will have to come together to fight it. I appeal to everyone to fight this together.”
West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee said she was happy that Mr. Kejriwal got interim bail. “It will be very helpful in the context of the current elections,” she said.
Congress leader Pawan Khera said, “We welcome the intervention by the Supreme Court in granting bail to Arvind Kejriwal…We also hope that the prime minister gets enough time after June 4, when he becomes the former prime minister of India, to introspect sitting in Sabarmati Ashram the kind of politics he has indulged in.”
Comments 2