Not Insisting On Cancellation Of Arvind Kejriwal's Bail For Now But Trial Court Order 'Erroneous': ED To Delhi High Court

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday told the Delhi High Court that it was not insisting on cancellation of bail granted to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Chief Arvind Kejriwal in the excise policy case for now. 

ASG SV Raju told Justice Ravinder Dudeja that even though the agency was not pressing for cancellation of Kejriwal's bail at this stage, the trial court order granting him regular bail is erroneous, perverse, bad in law and must be set aside.

Kejriwal was granted bail by vacation judge Niyay Bindu of Rouse Avenue Courts on June 20, 2024. On ED's challenge, the Delhi High Court had stayed the impugned order.

In July last year, the Supreme Court granted interim bail to Kejriwal while referring his petition challenging his arrest by ED to a larger bench.

During the hearing today, Raju submitted that even though Kejriwal is on interim bail today as per the Supreme Court order, he was granted bail by the trial court on erroneous grounds.

“I am not opposing or asking that his bail be cancelled. I am saying that the trial court order is perverse. We weren't given an opportunity. The judge said it does not want to go into the matter because the record is voluminous,” he said.

Senior Advocate Vikram Chaudhari appeared for Kejriwal and said that once ED makes a stand that it was not pressing for cancellation of bail, there was no question of wasting judicial time by entering into an academic exercise.

He also strongly opposed Raju's request to adjourn the matter for a couple of months, awaiting further development in the Apex Court.

Raju submitted that as per the Supreme Court order, the interim bail can be extended or recalled by the larger bench. He said that the larger bench of the Supreme Court has not been constituted yet and there is a likelihood that it might cancel interim bail granted to Kejriwal and in such a case, ED's plea to cancel the bail be kept pending.

On the other hand, Chaudhari submitted that there was nothing left in the matter after Supreme Court granted interim bail to Kejriwal. He said that the trial court order is well reasoned and that the Apex Court order granting interim bail to Kejriwal is as good as regular bail.

He said that the Supreme Court, while granting bail to a co-accused in the case had noted that all the accused persons were out on bail.

The matter was then adjourned to July 30.

Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 21, 2024. In May last year, he was granted interim bail by the Supreme Court till June 01, 2024 in view of general elections.

Title: ED v. Arvind Kejriwal