Delhi Liquor Scam: The Supreme Court on Friday, July 12 (today) will deliver its judgment on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's plea challenging his arrest and subsequent remand by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the alleged liquor policy case. As per the cause list of July 12 uploaded on the apex court's website, a bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna will pronounce the judgement.
On May 17, the bench, also comprising Justice Dipankar Datta, had reserved its verdict on Kejriwal's plea. The apex court had on April 15 sought a response from the ED on Kejriwal’s plea challenging his arrest in the money laundering case.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief has challenged in the top court the April 9 order of the Delhi High Court that had upheld his arrest in the case.
The High Court had upheld Kejriwal's arrest in the case, saying there was no illegality about it and that the ED was left with "little option" after he skipped repeated summonses and refused to join the investigation. The chief minister was arrested on March 21 by the ED in the money laundering case.
On June 20, he was granted bail by a trial court here on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh in the case.
However, the ED had moved the Delhi High Court the next day and contended that the trial court's order granting bail to Kejriwal was "perverse", "one-sided" and "wrong-sided" and that the findings were based on irrelevant facts.
The High Court, on June 21, imposed an interim stay on the trial court's bail order till passing of an order on ED's application for interim relief. On June 25, the High Court had passed a detailed order staying the trial court order.
Kejriwal was also arrested by the CBI on June 26 in connection with the corruption case related to the alleged excise policy scam.
The matter relates to alleged corruption and money laundering in the formulation and execution of the Delhi government's excise policy for 2021-22, which has now been scrapped.
Delhi High Court listed September 9 for hearing Kejriwal's petition challenging ED summons
Earlier today, the Delhi High Court listed for hearing on September 9 Kejriwal's petition challenging the summonses issued to him by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with its probe into an excise policy-linked money laundering case.
A bench headed by Justice Prathiba M Singh granted four more weeks to the AAP leader to file a rejoinder to the reply submitted by the ED.
The senior counsel, appearing for Kejriwal, sought more time to file the rejoinder saying there are certain changes in the circumstances and they have not been given a proper legal interview, a plea for which is pending in the high court.
"Let the rejoinder be filed in four weeks," the bench, also comprising Justice Amit Sharma, said.
The counsel for the ED had earlier said the petition against the summonses was infructuous after Kejriwal's arrest by the agency on March 21 in the money laundering case following the high court's refusal to grant him interim protection from coercive action.
On April 22, the court had given two weeks' time to Kejriwal to file his rejoinder. On the next date of hearing in May, the court allowed him four weeks more to place his stand on record.
With inputs from PTI
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