No Relief To Arvind Kejriwal As Supreme Court To Wait For Delhi HC's Order On AAP Chief's Bail In Liquor Policy Case

The Supreme Court on Monday (24 June) decided to wait for the Delhi High Court's order on Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's bail in the liquor policy case before taking up the matter itself.

Delhi High Court on Friday reserved its judgment on the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) plea against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Kejriwal's bail granted by the Rouse Avenue Court staying the order until verdict pronouncement.

The Supreme Court is ready to wait till the day after tomorrow (26 June) as it considered it "appropriate" after Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju, representing ED, argued that the High Court is set to pronounce the order soon.

However, Justice Manoj Misra of the vacation bench found it "unusual" that the Delhi High Court reserved its judgment on the stay application and said, "Normally orders are not reserved. They are passed at the hearing itself, on the spot."

Senior advocate Dr Abhishek Manu Singvhi, representing Kejriwal, questioned, "Supposing the HC dismisses ED's appeal, how does the learned judge compensate for the time he (Kejriwal) lost?"

Kejriwal was arrested on 21 March by the ED and was later sent to judicial custody. He came out on interim bail for a while to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections and went back to Tihar jail on 2 June.

His plea to extend interim bail on medical grounds was rejected. He then applied for regular bail, which is under consideration by the courts. Meanwhile, his judicial custody has been extended till 3 July.