'Orders are usually ...': Why SC found Delhi HC's stay order on Kejriwal's bail 'unusual'

Last week, Delhi HC paused interim bail granted to Arvind Kejriwal in the Delhi excise policy case

The Supreme Court on Monday said that Delhi high court's decision to stay chief minister Arvind Kejriwal's bail without pronouncing a final order was "a bit unusual".

A vacation bench of Justices Manoj Misra and SVN Bhatti observed that in stay applications, orders are usually pronounced the same day and not reserved.

“In stay applications, orders are not reserved. They are passed on spot. It is a bit unusual. Anyway, we will have it day after tomorrow," the Supreme Court said, posting the matter for hearing on June 26.

Earlier, on Friday, the Delhi high court had stayed a lower court's order granting bail to Kejriwal in the Delhi excise policy case. The court said it was reserving the order for 2-3 days as it wanted to go through the entire records.

After the high court paused his bail plea, Kejriwal moved the Supreme Court against the stay on his release.

During the SC hearing, additional solicitor general SV Raju, appearing for the ED, opposed the plea of Kejriwal, and said the high court is about to pronounce the verdict on its stay application.

The apex court noted that the high court had on June 21 asked the parties to file written submissions till June 24 and observed that the order is likely to be pronounced in a day or two.

The matter in high court is likely to be taken up on June 25.

The Supreme Court said it would like to wait for the pronouncement of the high court order on the matter.

At the outset, the bench told Kejriwal's counsel Abhishek Singhvi that pronouncing any order at this stage would be "prejudging" the issue.

In its bail order on Thursday, which has now been stayed, the trial court had held that prima facie, Kejriwal's guilt was yet to be established and that the ED had failed to furnish direct evidence linking him to the proceeds of crime in the money laundering case.

The excise policy was scrapped in 2022 after the Delhi lieutenant governor ordered a CBI probe into alleged irregularities and corruption involving its formulation and execution.

According to the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), irregularities were committed while modifying the policy and undue favours extended to the licence holders.

(With inputs from PTI)