Supreme Court To Deliver Judgment Tomorrow On Arvind Kejriwal's Petition For Bail In CBI Case

The Supreme Court will pronounce judgment tomorrow in the petitions filed by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal challenging his arrest by the CBI in the Delhi liquor policy case and seeking bail in the same.

A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan, which reserved judgment on September 5, will pronounce the decision. The judgment is authored by Justice Surya Kant.

To recap, one of Kejriwal's petitions challenged the Delhi High Court order of August 5, whereby his plea against CBI arrest was dismissed by a Single Judge bench with liberty to approach the trial Court for bail. The other Special Leave Petition challenged the High Court's refusal to consider his bail plea.

The AAP chief was formally arrested by CBI on June 26, 2024, while he was in custody of the Enforcement Directorate in the money laundering case arising out of the alleged liquor policy scam.

Weeks later, on July 12, the Supreme Court granted Kejriwal interim bail in the money laundering case, while referring his petition challenging ED arrest to a larger bench. However, he continued to remain in custody (which commenced on March 21) due to his arrest by the CBI.

Challenging Kejriwal's continuing incarceration in the CBI case, Senior Advocate Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi submitted that he got release orders on three occasions in the money laundering case despite the stringent rigors of Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act [Ref: the interim bail orders passed by the Supreme Court on May 10 and July 12, and the regular bail order passed by the trial court on June 20 (which the High Court stayed)].

He questioned how Kejriwal could be denied regular bail in the CBI case when he has gotten bail under the PMLA, since the Prevention of Corruption Act does not have stringent conditions similar to the money laundering law. He termed the arrest by the CBI an "insurance arrest", which was made on June 26 on the cusp of Kejriwal's release in the ED case, and pointed that though the case was registered in August 2022, Kejriwal was not arrested for about two years.

On behalf of CBI, Additional Solicitor General SV Raju raised a preliminary objection to grant of bail, saying that Kejriwal should approach the trial court first. It was submitted that the co-accused who got bail from the Supreme Court - K Kavitha, Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, etc.- had approached the trial court, however, Kejriwal has never approached the trial court for bail (in the CBI case).

The ASG also highlighted that Kejriwal's arrest was made pursuant to a Court permission and the said order had not been challenged. Notably, he commented at one point, "If bail is granted, it would be demoralizing HC". However, this submission was not appreciated by the bench. "How is that demoralizing? Don't say that! How can it be?," Justice Bhuyan exclaimed.

For more details about the case, click here.

In related news, former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, BRS leader K Kavitha and Aam Aadmi Party's former communications-in-charge Vijay Nair, who are also accused in the liquor policy case, were recently granted bail by the Supreme Court. The Delhi High Court as well lately granted bail to co-accused Sameer Mahendru, Chanpreet Singh and Arun Pillai.

Case Title: Arvind Kejriwal v. Central Bureau of Investigation, SLP(Crl) No. 11023/2024 (and connected case)