SC registry rejects Arvind Kejriwal's plea for extension of bail by a week

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal

The Supreme Court registry on May 29 rejected Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's request for urgent hearing in his plea seeking extension of his interim bail by a week.

According to the registry, since the top court has granted Kejriwal a liberty to move the trial court if he wishes to obtain bail, he can move the plea to a trial court.

The registry said the court has reserved his plea challenging his arrest for judgment, his plea seeking  extension of interim bail has no relation to the main petition.

Kejriwal had filed a fresh petition in the Supreme Court, seeking an extension of his interim bail by seven days on heath grounds. He had sought for an urgent hearing of the plea on May 28 before a vacation bench of the Supreme Court.

The apex court had granted him temporary bail for 21 days to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections. But it had prohibited him from going to his office or the secretariat in Delhi and signing official documents unless it was absolutely required to have the lieutenant governor's assent.

In his recent appeal, the chief minister had requested a seven-day extension of the provisional parole due to health concerns, citing his weight loss of 7 kg among other reasons.

"Kejriwal lost 7 kg weight after arrest. Kejriwal's ketone level very high and there may be symptoms of some serious disease," AAP said in a statement.

The plea said the chief minister is required to undergo some medical tests and for this purpose, the interim bail, which is ending on June 1, be extended.

However, on May 17, while a bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta reserved the plea for judgment, the court gave him the liberty to move the trial court for bail if need be.

It may be noted that when the court granted Kejriwal an interim bail on May 10, it directed him to surrender on June 2 and rejected the request by his lawyers to extend it till June 4.