Liquor policy case: Delhi HC to hear ED plea against Arvind Kejriwal's bail on July 15

Delhi High Court on Arvind Kejriwal's arrest

The Delhi High Court on July 10 deferred to July 15 the hearing of the Enforcement Directorate's appeal against a trial court order granting bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the liquor policy case.

The case was adjourned on the request of the ED as they sought time to file a rejoinder to Kejriwal's response to the plea. Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju appeared for ED and contended that they were served with Kejriwal's response late last evening and they would like to file a response to the same.

The ASG thus asked the court to defer the hearing of the case. Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who appeared for Kejriwal, contended that the response was served on them last evening and urged the court to hear the plea as it was a matter of urgency.

Justice Neena Bansal Krishna, who heard the case, however, noted that the ED is entitled to file a response and adjourned the case to July 15.

On June 25, a vacation bench of the court granted an interim stay on bail to Arvind Kejriwal. The HC noted that the trial court could not have said that it could not read thousands of pages of documents.

Earlier, the high court had halted the bail order till it pronounced its verdict on the application for an interim stay. The HC also noted that the trial court should have recorded its satisfaction with respect to the satisfaction of twin conditions for bail under PMLA.

On June 21, the Delhi High Court stayed a lower court's order granting bail to Kejriwal in the Delhi excise policy case. The HC stated that it was reserving its order for 2-3 days to thoroughly review the entire case records. Following this pause on his bail plea, Kejriwal moved to the Supreme Court, challenging the stay on his release. He, however, withdrew the supreme court appeal in view of the final interim order pronouncement by the HC.

Kejriwal was granted interim bail by the SC in May to allow him to campaign for the 18th Lok Sabha elections. Following the completion of his campaign activities, he returned to jail on June 2.