Delhi HC refuses to stay case against Kejriwal | Latest News Delhi

The Delhi high court on Thursday refused to immediately stay the ongoing trial hearing against former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in the excise policy case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

The bench of Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri refused to stay the proceedings after the ED filed a notice seeking to quash the city court’s order, considering the allegations in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief’s petition naming him and AAP as accused. He claimed he had the sanction to sue Kejriwal

“I will report it. Attorney General Tushar Mehta informed that the response will be submitted in the form of an affidavit,” said the judge in Ohrid and fixed December 20 as the next date of hearing.

The AAP chief had approached the high court seeking to quash the city court’s July 9 order, taking into account the 200-page charge sheet submitted by the ED, and issued a production order against him, saying there was sufficient material on record to take action against the accused. persons.

In his petition to the high court, the AAP chief claimed that the crime of money laundering was committed while he was a public servant and that he had the right to benefit from the protection provided for in Article 197(()), and requested the annulment of all transactions arising from the case. 1) The applicability was determined by the Supreme Court, Bibhu Prasad Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) which was strengthened in Acharya’s decision.

Section 197(1) of the CrPC states that no investigation against a public servant can proceed without prior approval from the competent authority. This provision corresponds to Article 218 of the Bhartiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, which replaces the CrPC with effect from July 1. In its decision on November 6, the Supreme Court ruled that prior sanction was necessary to prosecute public officials for money laundering. Based on the same decision, senior Congress leader and former Union minister P Chidambaram managed to get stay of the case filed against him in the Aircel-Maxis case on Wednesday. It was Justice Ohrid’s bench that stayed the case against Chidambaram citing the same decision. The judge had said that in light of the allegations made in the prosecution complaint(s) and the significance of the decision, the challenge to the lawfulness of the order and the continuation of the trial for lack of sanction needed further consideration.

In his plea, Kejriwal said that the ED had filed the criminal complaint without taking the prior sanction of the competent authority and the city court had received information without fulfilling the prerequisite and therefore his prosecution was bad in the eyes of law. “Furthermore, the impugned order was passed by the Ld Special Judge without addressing any of the allegations made in the charge sheet or recording satisfaction regarding the allegations stated therein,” the charge sheet said.

During Thursday’s hearing, the ED, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, initially stated that the investigating agency had the sanction to initiate a probe against the AAP chief and sought time to place the same on record.

However, Kejriwal, represented by senior advocates N Hariharan and Rebecca John, maintained that the investigating agency had filed a criminal complaint without taking sanction and the only document they had put on record was the panchnama. Hariharan urged the court to stay the proceedings, arguing that since the sixth and seventh supplementary charge sheets were “exactly the same”, the ED had submitted the charge sheet only by re-evaluating the material collected earlier.

The law officer, who objected to the hearing and termed Hariharan’s claim as “factually incorrect”, stated that the ED submitted the charge sheet only after conducting further investigation.

Taking into account the allegations, the court gave time to the ED to respond to Kejriwal’s petition and fixed December 20 as the next date of hearing. He also refused to consider Kejriwal’s plea for exemption from personally appearing before the trial court on the next date of hearing (December 3), saying the AAP chief always has the freedom to approach the city court.

The AAP chief was arrested by the ED on March 21 and by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on June 26. On July 12, the Supreme Court granted interim bail to Kejriwal in the ED case, admitting that he had spent more than 90 days. Reiterating that in incarceration and the CBI case on September 12, bail is the rule and imprisonment is the exception. The case against Kejriwal had arisen from allegations of irregularities in Delhi’s now-cancelled 2021-22 excise policy, and the CBI began probing it in July 2022 on the recommendation of Delhi’s lieutenant governor (LG).