New Delhi:

The Supreme Court is scheduled to deliver today its verdict on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s plea challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case linked to the alleged excise policy scam.

As per the cause list of July 12 uploaded on the supreme court’s website, a bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna will pronounce the judgement.

On May 17, the bench, also comprising Justice Dipankar Datta, had reserved its verdict on Arvind Kejriwal’s plea.

The supreme  court had on April 15 sought a response from the ED on Kejriwal’s plea challenging his arrest in the money laundering case.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief has challenged in the top court the April 9 order of the Delhi High Court that had upheld his arrest in the case.

The high court had upheld Kejriwal’s arrest in the case, saying there was no illegality about it and that the ED was left with “little option” after he skipped repeated summonses and refused to join the investigation.

The chief minister was arrested on March 21 by the ED in the money laundering case.

On June 20, he was granted bail by a trial court here on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh in the case.

However, the ED had moved the Delhi High Court the next day and contended that the trial court’s order granting bail to Kejriwal was “perverse”, “one-sided” and “wrong-sided” and that the findings were based on irrelevant facts.

The high court, on June 21, imposed an interim stay on the trial court’s bail order till passing of an order on ED’s application for interim relief. On June 25, the high court had passed a detailed order staying the trial court order.

Kejriwal was also arrested by the CBI on June 26 in connection with the corruption case related to the alleged excise policy scam.

The matter relates to alleged corruption and money laundering in the formulation and execution of the Delhi government’s excise policy for 2021-22, which has now been scrapped.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

The Supreme Court on Monday refused Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal immediate relief in his battle to overturn the High Court’s interim stay on a bail order issued last week by a lower court.

The court responded to Mr Kejriwal’s arguments – the High Court erred in staying bail without first perusing the order, and rationale, of the lower court – by saying it would wait till the said order came on record, and the High Court had a chance to re-examine the stay – before acting on the matter.

The court has fixed Wednesday as the next hearing date; the High Court is expected to deliver its full verdict on Tuesday. “It is not proper to interfere when the High Court has reserved its judgement,” the Supreme Court said, “We will keep this petition for hearing for day after tomorrow.”

This was after Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Enforcement Directorate – which arrested Mr Kejriwal in the liquor policy case March and has opposed bail and medical relief claimed by the Chief Minister – said the High Court is likely to render its verdict within 24 hours.

Earlier, as the day’s (brief) hearing began, Mr Kejriwal’s lawyers argued that the “balance of convenience” is in the Chief Minister’s favour, reasoning there is no substantial reason for the AAP leader to stay in jail. “If bail is reversed, he will certainly go back to jail… as he did after the Supreme Court’s interim release (to campaign for the election),” senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi said.

He was referring to Mr Kejriwal’s release last month – allowed by the top court – to campaign for his party and the Congress-led INDIA bloc in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP was pegged back and forced to rely on its allies to form the government.

Mr Singhvi also referred to the top court’s order granting Mr Kejriwal that interim bail, in which it acknowledged the Delhi Chief Minister is not a “habitual offender” or a “flight risk”.

“Why can’t I be free in the interim? I have a judgment in my favour…” he continued, responding to the court suggesting the Chief Minister be patient for 24-48 hours till the High Court reads its order.

“If we pass order now, we will prejudge the issue. This is not a subordinate court…” he was told.