Delhi High Court on Thursday rejected the plea seeking to remove Arvind Kejriwal from the post of Delhi Chief Minister following his arrest in a money laundering case linked to the Delhi excise policy scam case.
A bench led by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan declined to comment on the merits of the issue, stating that it was beyond the purview of judicial intervention. "It is for the other wings of the government to examine in accordance with the law," the bench said.
What did the court say?
In the course of the hearing, the court asked petitioner Surjit Singh Yadav's counsel to show the legal impediment to Arvind Kejriwal's continuation as the Chief Minister. "There may be practical difficulties but that is something else. Where is the legal bar?" the court asked.
Earlier on Wednesday, MLAs from both the ruling AAP and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) held protests on the Delhi Assembly premises raising slogans against each other. While the BJP MLAs held a demonstration demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Kejriwal, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislators and their supporters raised slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Both parties staged protests simultaneously. As the BJP legislators took out a march carrying placards, the AAP leaders and workers, dressed in yellow T-shirts, started raising slogans against Modi while following the saffron party's MLAs.
Kejriwal arrested on March 21
It should be mentioned here that the ED had arrested Kejriwal on March 21 hours after the high court refused to grant him protection from coercive action by the anti-money laundering probe agency. The case pertains to the alleged corruption and money laundering in formulating and executing the Delhi government's excise policy for 2021-22 which was later scrapped.
The case originated from a report presented by Delhi Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar to Lieutenant Governor (LG) Vinai Kumar Saxena in July 2022, highlighting purported procedural deficiencies in the development of the policy. The report said "arbitrary and unilateral decisions" taken by AAP leader Manish Sisodia in his capacity as Excise Minister had resulted in "financial losses to the exchequer" estimated at more than Rs 580 crore.
