Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal will have to go to jail on June 2 itself. The Supreme Court has
rejected his petition to extend the interim bail by seven days.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has received a big
blow from the country's biggest court. The Supreme Court did not consider his
petition filed for extending the interim bail by seven days as worthy of being
heard immediately. The Supreme Court registry has refused to list the petition
before the vacation bench. While granting 21 days interim bail to Arvind
Kejriwal, the Supreme Court had said that the Delhi Chief Minister will have to
surrender on June 2.
Terming Kejriwal's plea as 'not maintainable', the
registry cited the Supreme Court's earlier order, in which the relief granted
to Kejriwal was limited to June 1 and he was given the option to approach the
trial court for regular bail. The vacation bench had refused an urgent hearing
a day earlier. After this, Kejriwal's legal team contacted the registry to get the
petition listed. After being disappointed here too, the legal team of the Delhi
Chief Minister is now considering options. One option is to approach the trial
court for regular bail.
The registry did not consider the petition maintainable
and cited the previous order which mentioned the conditions of the temporary
relief granted to Kejriwal. Emphasizing that any fresh application for bail
must now go before the trial court. The registry also said that the Chief
Minister was also given liberty to approach the trial court for regular bail.
The registry also underlined that the Supreme Court had reserved its verdict on
May 17 on the challenge to the arrest, hence their fresh petition seeking
extension of interim relief has no connection with the main petition and cannot
be listed in the same case.
Arvind Kejriwal had filed a petition in the Supreme
Court demanding that the interim bail period be extended by 7 days. Kejriwal's
argument is that doctors have asked him to undergo several tests including
PET-CT scan and he needs time for this. Aam Aadmi Party claims that Kejriwal's
weight has decreased by 7 kg and ketone level has increased a lot. There is
also a possibility of Kejriwal suffering from some serious illness.
Earlier, the vacation bench of the Supreme Court had
also refused to hear the petition immediately. A bench of Justices JK
Maheshwari and KV Viswanathan had told senior advocate Abhishek Manu Sanghvi,
appearing for Kejriwal, that the request would be sent to the Chief Justice for
consideration as the verdict in the main case was reserved. The bench also
asked Sanghvi why the petition was not brought before a bench headed by Justice
Dipankar Dutta last week.
