On Tuesday, May 28, the Supreme Court’s vacation bench, comprising Justices JK Maheshwari and KV Viswanathan, refused an urgent hearing for Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s plea seeking a seven-day extension of his interim bail in connection with the Delhi Liquor Policy money laundering case.
The bench questioned Senior Advocate Abhishek Singhvi, representing Kejriwal, about why the plea was not mentioned when Justice Dipankar Datta, the judge of the main bench, was hearing the case last week.
“The matter is already heard, and the judgment is reserved,” the vacation bench stated, according to Live Law. The Supreme Court then directed that the matter be listed before the Chief Justice of India for an appropriate order.
Kejriwal, who is under investigation by the Enforcement Directorate, sought an urgent listing of his plea in the Supreme Court on Tuesday. He requested a seven-day extension of his interim bail on health grounds, citing a need for various medical tests, including a PET-CT scan, due to “sudden and unexplained weight loss along with elevated ketone levels,” which could indicate kidney issues, severe cardiac conditions, or even cancer. Kejriwal stated that he would surrender to jail authorities on June 9 instead of June 2 in his plea filed on May 26.
The Supreme Court had granted Kejriwal a 21-day interim bail on May 10 to allow him to campaign for the Lok Sabha polls, directing him to surrender on June 2, a day after the last phase of the seven-phase election concluded.
Kejriwal faces corruption and money laundering charges related to the formulation and execution of the Delhi government’s now-scrapped excise policy for 2021-22.
