High Court Dismisses Plea Seeking Suspension Of Delhi Minister Satyendar Jain Amid ED Probe

The Delhi High Court on Thursday dismissed a public interest litigation seeking suspension of Aam Aadmi Party minister Satyendar Jain who is under judicial custody in connection with a money laundering case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate.

A division bench comprising of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad dismissed the plea moved by one Dr. Nand Kishore Garg, who has been the Member of Legislative Assembly of Delhi (thrice) from Trinagar constituency.

The petition also sought issuance of guidelines pertaining to resignation or suspension of the ministers if a minister is arrested beyond stipulated time period of 48 hours as per the practice being followed relating to the public servants in term of Rule 10 of the Central Civil Services (Classification, Control & Appeal) Rules, 1965.

The counsel appearing for the petitioner referred to various judgements of the Apex Court including the cases of Manoj Narula v. Union of India and M. Karunanidhi v. Union of India.

However, the Bench disagreed with the contentions of the petitioner counsel and orally remarked thus:

"We know our limitations. We have to obey the statutes, rules and notifications. We cannot travel beyond that. We are not the lawmakers."

The petition was filed through Advocates Shashank Deo Sudhi, Dinesh Kumar Dakoria, Sachin Sain and Aman.

The plea stated that Jain, despite being under custody, is still enjoying the perks and privileges of cabinet minister despite having been allegedly indicted under the serious charges which may entail severe punishment.

"…the preferential treatment for minister under custody strikes to Article 14 of the Constitution of India and several judicial pronouncements including the constitutional bench judgement where Hon'ble Supreme Court had clearly held emphasizing that the Hon'ble Prime Minister or Chief Minister have immense discretionary power to uphold the rule of law and the individual having a criminal record should be made minister under in the interest of public at large," the plea added.

The petition further averred that Jain is neither suspended nor is there any intendment on the part of Chief Minister. It added that the Chief Minister is supporting and giving the clean chit to Jain, which is in violation of the oath for the supremacy of the Constitution of India.

The money laundering case against Jain is based upon an FIR registered by the CBI against the minister and other individuals in the year 2017, under the Prevention of Corruption Act, wherein it was alleged that during the period of February 2015 to May 2017, the minister had acquired assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. The CBI had then filed a chargesheet in December 2018 against Jain.

In a similar development, a PIL has been moved in the Supreme Court seeking direction to Delhi Governmentt to sack its Health Minister Satyendar Jain & to Maharashtra Government to sack its Cabinet Minister Nawab Malik, in connection with money laundering cases being investigated against them.

The vacation bench of Apex Court however told the petitioner that the plea could only be posted after it us placed before the Chief Justice of India.

Case Title: Dr Nand Kishore Garg v. Govt. of NCT of Delhi and Ors

Citation: 2022 LiveLaw (Del) 617