Delhi High Court To Pronounce Tomorrow Judgment On ED's Plea To Stay Arvind Kejriwal's Bail

The Delhi High Court will pronounce tomorrow judgment on a plea moved by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) seeking stay of the trial court order granting bail to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the excise policy case.

Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain will pronounce the verdict at 2:30 PM.

Kejriwal was granted bail by the trial court on June 20. On June 21, ED moved the Delhi High Court challenging the grant of bail to the Chief Minister. In the interim, the central probe agency moved urgent application seeking stay of the impugned order.

Justice Jain, the vacation judge of last week, heard ED's plea on Friday. While reserving judgment in the stay application, the court ordered that the impugned order shall remain stayed till pronouncement of the order.

Kejriwal then moved the Supreme Court challenging the stay granted by the High Court. The matter was heard today by a vacation bench headed by Justice Manoj Misra which adjourned the hearing to June 24.

However, the Apex Court orally said that the Delhi High Court's approach to reserve order on ED's stay application against Arvind Kejriwal's bail was "a bit unusual."

The Court also commented that in the usual course, stay orders are passed "on the spot" immediately after the hearing and are not reserved.

The hearing was adjourned as the Apex Court said that it does not want to "pre-judge" the issue when the High Court's order is awaited.

Vide the impugned order, Vacation Judge Niyay Bindu of Rouse Avenue Court contained scathing observations against the ED. The judge went to the extent of drawing an inference that the ED was acting with bias against Kejriwal.

The order further held that the ED had not shown any direct evidence regarding the proceeds of the crime.

Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 21. In May, he was granted interim bail by the Supreme Court till June 01 in view of general elections. He surrendered on June 2.

Title: ED v. Arvind Kejriwal