HC stays bail granted to Arvind Kejriwal in money laundering case

New Delhi: The Delhi HC vacation bench, on June 25, granted an interim stay on bail to Arvind Kejriwal. The HC noted that the trial court could not have said that it could not read thousands of pages of documents.

Earlier, the High Court had halted the bail order till it pronounced its verdict on the application for an interim stay. The SC will hear Kejriwal’s appeal against this order on June 26. The HC also noted that the trial court should have recorded its satisfaction with respect to the satisfaction of twin conditions for bail under PMLA.

Shortly after the HC’s order pronouncement, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) stated, “We dissent with the decision of the High Court. We will challenge this decision in the Supreme Court. The order on bail can’t be stayed in this manner, the Supreme Court too has said this yesterday”.

The Supreme Court on June 24 remarked that the Delhi High Court’s decision to stay CM Kejriwal’s bail without issuing a final order was “a bit unusual.” A vacation bench consisting of Justices Manoj Misra and SVN Bhatti noted that typically, in cases involving stay applications, the orders are pronounced on the same day rather than being reserved.

In light of this, the apex court has scheduled a hearing for June 26 to address Kejriwal’s plea against the interim stay on his bail by the Delhi High Court in the money laundering case associated with the alleged excise scam. The bench indicated that it would prefer to wait for the Delhi High Court to pronounce its order on the matter before proceeding with the Supreme Court hearing.

On June 21, the Delhi High Court stayed a lower court’s order granting bail to Kejriwal in the Delhi excise policy case. The HC stated that it was reserving its order for 2-3 days to thoroughly review the entire case records. Following this pause on his bail plea, Kejriwal moved to the Supreme Court, challenging the stay on his release.

Kejriwal was granted interim bail by the SC in May to allow him to campaign for the 18th Lok Sabha elections. Following the completion of his campaign activities, he returned to jail on June 2.