Kejriwal withdraws plea filed before SC against interim stay on bail

New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday withdrew his plea filed before the Supreme Court challenging the interim stay ordered by the Delhi High Court on his release on bail in a money laundering case linked to the alleged liquor policy scam.

A vacation bench presided over by Justice Manoj Misra took note of the submission that a fresh plea would be moved before the apex court in view of the latest decision of the Delhi High Court staying the trial court order granting bail to CM Kejriwal.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing CM Kejriwal, submitted, “I seek your lordships’ permission to withdraw the present special leave petition with an express liberty to file a fresh petition challenging both the 21st and 25th orders passed by the Delhi High Court.”

Granting liberty to file a fresh petition, the Bench, also comprising Justice SVN Bhatti dismissed the petition as withdrawn.

In its final verdict pronounced on a plea filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Delhi High Court on Tuesday said that the trial court vacation bench did not apply its mind to the entire material and it ought to give equal opportunity to the ED to argue bail application.

On Monday, the top court refused to pass any immediate direction against the stay ordered by the Delhi High Court on CM Kejriwal’s release on bail.

Without passing any interim relief in favour of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo, the SC adjourned the proceedings saying that it will take up the matter for hearing on Wednesday as the Delhi High Court is likely to pronounce its decision on ED’s plea for interim stay in a day or two.

Earlier on June 21, the Delhi High Court in an interim direction stayed the release of CM Kejriwal on the ED’s plea challenging the trial court’s bail order.

Halting CM Kejriwal’s release, a vacation bench of Justices Sudhir Kumar Jain and Ravinder Dudeja of the high court directed that the bail order should not be enforced until the matter is heard in full. Later that day, the Delhi High Court reserved its order on ED’s plea for interim stay and said that it would pass its order in two to three days.

The ED had requested the trial court on June 20 for a 48-hour deferral in signing the bail bond following the pronouncement of the order. However, the trial court firmly denied the ED’s plea for a stay on its order granting bail.