Supreme Court Grants Interim Bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal
In a significant development, on Friday (July 12), the Supreme Court granted interim bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a case registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) concerning the liquor policy. The court referred Kejriwal’s petition challenging the arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to a larger bench. Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta referred the petition to a larger bench to consider whether the necessity of arrest should be a condition under Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Despite the interim bail, Kejriwal will remain in custody due to his previous arrest by the CBI under the Prevention of Corruption Act on June 25 in connection to the same liquor policy case.
During the open court session, Justice Khanna mentioned that the reasons for arrest align with the parameters of Section 19 of the PMLA, which empowers ED officers to make arrests. However, the court raised an additional issue regarding the need and necessity of arrest, particularly in light of the doctrine of proportionality, and referred these questions to the larger bench. Justice Khanna also emphasized that mere interrogation is not grounds for arrest under Section 19.
The court granted interim bail to Kejriwal but left the decision of stepping down as Chief Minister to him, while clarifying that the larger bench can modify the interim bail decision.