'Whimsical, Without Any Statistical Basis': Delhi Court Rejects Kejriwal's Plea Seeking More Time With Lawyers In Jail

A Delhi court on Wednesday (10 April) dismissed an application moved by jailed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, seeking more time with his lawyers.

The court said relevant rules are equally applicable to him and other inmates and that he allegedly used legal consultations allowed by the court to issue certain administrative directions.

Kejriwal, who is lodged in Tihar jail in connection with the Delhi liquor policy case, had sought permission for five weekly meetings with his lawyers instead of two legal interviews allowed currently.

However, the Special judge for CBI and ED cases, Kaveri Baweja, citing misuse of the allowed legal meetings for administrative tasks, dismissed the application.

“The status report/note filed by the ED indicates that the applicant had dictated certain directions for being passed on to the Water Minister, to one of his lawyers (whose name he refused to disclose to the ED), during the course of a legal meeting. It thus appears that the applicant is not even utilizing the permitted two legal interviews per week with his counsels solely for discussing his pending litigations and has rather used the allotted time for purposes other than legal interviews in the aforesaid manner,” the judge said, NDTV reported.

The court cited a Delhi High Court judgment, which said every citizen of India is entitled to protection of law, which will also equally apply to him.

The judge dismissed Mr Kejriwal's submission that about 35 cases were pending against him across the country for which he needed more time with his lawyer for consultation, saying his application was bereft of necessary details of cases, including their number, the nature and stage of proceedings.

"Though, in the course of arguments, it was submitted by counsel for applicant that there are about 30-35 litigations regarding which the applicant needs to have consultations and discussions with his counsels, but, there does not appear to be any objective criteria for assessing if five meetings with his lawyers per week would be sufficient to address the concern of the applicant or that two meetings, which are permitted as per jail rules, are insufficient for this purpose," the judge said.

"In the absence of any such objective criteria for assessment, the prayer of the applicant for five legal interviews with his lawyers per week not only appears to be whimsical but also seems to have been made without any statistical basis or objective standards for assessment," the judge said.

The ED had argued against granting Kejriwal special privileges, and alleged that the legal interviews were being misused by Kejriwal for purposes other than consultation.

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