Delhi Liquor Policy Scam: Delhi High Court stays Trial court’s order granting bail to CM Arvind Kejriwal

In a recent development, the Delhi High Court (HC) stayed the order of the trial court, granting bail to Delhi Chief Minister (CM) Arvind Kejriwal in the money laundering case linked to the Delhi liquor policy scam. Today (June 25), the Delhi HC's single-judge bench of Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain allowed the ED’s (Enforcement Directorate) application seeking a stay of the trial court’s order. The HC said, “The Vacation Judge while passing the Impugned Order did not appropriately appreciate the material/documents submitted on record and pleas taken by ED and the averments/grounds as raised in the petition under section 439(2) of the Code require serious consideration while dealing with said petition. Accordingly, the present application is allowed and the operation of the Impugned Order is stayed.” 

Moreover, the HC accepted the ED’s submission, regarding no proper opportunity to present the case granted to them by the trial court. Justice Jain remarked, “It is not understandable that on one hand, the Vacation Judge has expressed her inability to go through entire documents stated to have been running into thousands of pages at the time of passing the Impugned Order and on the other hand, how in para no. 36 the Vacation Judge has mentioned that relevant arguments and contentions raised on behalf of the parties are dealt with.” It added, “The observation made by the Vacation Judge in Impugned Order is uncalled for, unwarranted and out of context. The Vacation Judge should refrain from making such observations in the Impugned Order. The Vacation Judge was required to consider every important and relevant document at the time of passing of Impugned Order.” 

After hearing the contentions, the Delhi HC bench stayed the regular bail granted to Arvind Kejriwal by the trial court’s order and opined that the trial court did not consider the evidence efficiently submitted by the ED.