The Delhi High Court on Monday rejected the bail plea by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in connection with the Excise Policy case, in a huge setback to the AAP leader. The court had reserved the order on the AAP leader’s bail plea on July 29 after hearing arguments of the counsel for Kejriwal and CBI.
The High Court on July 17 had reserved its order on the plea challenging his arrest by the CBI in the corruption case linked to the now-scrapped Excise Policy. Regarding the bail application, the court has disposed of it, granting Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal the option to approach the trial court for further relief.
Challenging his arrest, Kejriwal’s lawyer argued that it was an “insurance arrest” to make sure that he does not walk out of the prison and stays inside the jail. He described Kejriwal’s arrest a “sham” and argued that the CBI did not want to arrest him and did not have any material to take him into custody.
The CBI counsel had opposed both pleas of Kejriwal and said that terming his arrest an “insurance arrest” was unjustified. He also said that Kejriwal was the “sutradhaar” of the excise policy scam and there was evidence to prove his involvement in the offence.
Meanwhile, in another major setback to the Kejriwal-led AAP government in Delhi, the Supreme Court has ruled that the Lieutenant-Governor (LG) of Delhi has the power to nominate aldermen to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) without the aid and advice of the Delhi Government.
The verdict comes as a major setback to the AAP government amid the ongoing tiff between the Arvind Kejriwal-led government and the LG. Dismissing the Delhi government’s petition which argued that the LG is bound to act on the aid and advice of the council of ministers in nominating 10 aldermen to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), the bench of CJI D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala said the LG had statutory power and not executive.
The apex court pronounced its verdict on the Delhi government’s plea after reserving it for nearly 15 months.