SC refuses urgent hearing of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal's bail extension plea

A vacation bench of the Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the urgent hearing for an extension of the bail plea of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the liquorgate scandal case. Following the hearing of the application for a seven-day medical bail extension, the bench emphasised that the matter had previously been considered and that a decision was still pending. It said that the ultimate decision about the case's listing will be made by the CJI.

The bench asked Singhvi why the plea of Kejriwal was not mentioned for urgent listing last week when Justice Dipankar Datta, one of the judges of the main bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna which had granted the interim bail to the chief minister, was sitting on the vacation bench.

Seeking to undertake a variety of medical tests, including a PET-CT scan in light of his "sudden and unexplained weight loss, coupled with high ketone levels," which are symptomatic of renal, major heart problems, and even cancer, Kejriwal has asked for a seven-day extension of his temporary release.

In a new plea submitted on May 26, the chief minister announced that he will turn himself in to jail officials on June 9 rather than June 2, since that was his original scheduled date of return. In order to allow the chief minister to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections, the top court on May 10 granted him 21 days of temporary release. The chief minister had been detained in connection with a money laundering case involving the excise policy scam.

It had directed that Kejriwal shall surrender on June 2, a day after the last phase of the seven-phase poll gets over. The matter relates to the alleged corruption and money laundering in the formulation and execution of the Delhi government’s now-scrapped excise policy for 2021-22.