Delhi HC to pass order tomorrow on ED’s plea for stay on Arvind Kejriwal’s bail

The Delhi High Court is set to pronounce the verdict on Tuesday on the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) plea seeking a stay on a trial court’s order that granted bail to chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in the money laundering case linked to a now-scrapped excise policy.
The verdict is expected at 2:30pm.
A vacation bench led by Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain reserved the decision on June 21 after the ED contested the trial court’s ruling and ordered an interim stay until the verdict was announced.
Kejriwal, arrested by the ED on March 21, was granted bail last Thursday by the trial court’s vacation judge Nyay Bindu on a bail bond of ₹1 lakh. The court rejected the ED’s request to delay the bail bond filing process by 48 hours. The central probe agency argued that the trial court’s decision was “perverse”, “one-sided” and “wrong-sided”.
Kejriwal approached the Supreme Court on Sunday after the high court halted his release until it decided on the ED’s plea. During the hearing of Kejriwal’s plea, a Supreme Court vacation bench noted on Monday that stay orders are typically decided and announced on the same day. On Monday, the Supreme Court informed Kejriwal’s lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi that making any decision at that point would be commenting on the matter prematurely.
“We will be pre-judging the issue, if we pass any order at this stage. It is not some other court but the high court,” the bench said. It deferred the hearing till June 26.
Singhvi requested to lift the temporary halt on the bail order. He argued that Kejriwal should be released until the Delhi high court decides on the matter. He added that the Delhi CM was not a flight risk. “I know what I am asking. This court must stay the high court order before it is being pronounced just like the high court had stayed the bail order on mere mention by the Enforcement Directorate.”
Kejriwal was granted interim bail from the Supreme Court on May 10 for campaigning in the Lok Sabha elections. He was instructed to surrender by June 2 and was barred from visiting the Chief Minister’s Office and the Delhi Secretariat during this period.