NEW DELHI: Delhi High Court on Friday adjourned to Jan 30 the plea of former chief minister Arvind Kejriwal against cognisance by a trial court of the Enforcement Directorate’s chargesheet in the Delhi excise policy case.
Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri deferred the matter after being informed by the ED’s counsel that additional solicitor general S V Raju, who was scheduled to make submissions on Friday, was unavailable. The court agreed to take up the matter in Jan at the request of Kejriwal’s counsel after initially listing it for Feb 19.
“Here is a person whose elections are coming in Jan and he is waiting endlessly for the other side to argue the matter,” Kejriwal’s counsel said, opposing ED’s request for adjournment and seeking an early date.
The court also posted AAP leader Manish Sisodia’s similar plea on the same date as Kejriwal’s.
Both Kejriwal and Sisodia have sought the setting aside of the trial court order and argued the trial court took cognisance of the chargesheet in the absence of sanction for their prosecution, mandated in law as they were public servants at the time of the alleged crime.
However, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for ED earlier, informed the court that sanction was obtained to prosecute Kejriwal. Besides seeking to set aside the trial court’s July 9 order taking cognisance of the chargesheet, Kejriwal sought the quashing of all proceedings in the case. The plea contended the prosecution of Kejriwal was bad in law as it was without mandatory sanctions under Section 197 CrPC despite the allegations pertaining to the official acts performed by him.
While Kejriwal was granted interim bail by the Supreme Court on July 12 in the money laundering case, the apex court released him on bail in the CBI case on Sept 13.
Hearing on bail pleas of riots case accused deferred to Jan 7
The high court adjourned the pending bail petitions of activists Umar Khalid, Sharjeel Imam, and others on Friday. “How do we adjourn bail matters like this? Last time also these were heard by a bench and released,” a bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Shalinder Kaur remarked while reluctantly deferring the hearing in connection with the northeast Delhi riot cases to Jan 7, after Delhi Police informed the court that the Additional Solicitor General was not available. The court, however, said it would take up the matter as a priority once the court re-opened after the winter vacations.
