The Delhi High Court on Tuesday stayed bail granted to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by a trial court in the excise policy case. A vacation Bench of Delhi High Court presided by Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain said the trial judge failed to appreciate entire material brought on record by rival parties, which “reflects perversity in the impugned order”.
Reacting to the Delhi High Court judgement, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said it will challenge its order staying the bail granted to Arvind Kejriwal in the Supreme Court.
“The Court ought to maintain a delegate balance between a judgment of acquittal and conviction and order granting bail much before commencement of trial. The Court is not supposed to weigh the evidence meticulously. However, the Vacation Judge in the impugned Order has not discussed the requirement of section 45 of PMLA while passing the impugned Order. The trial court should have at least recorded its satisfaction with the fulfilment of the twin conditions of section 45 of PMLA before passing the impugned order,” Delhi High Court Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain stated.
“The perusal of the Impugned Order reflects that the vacation Judge has passed the Impugned order without going through and appreciating the entire material brought on record by the rival parties which reflects perversity in Impugned Order,” observed the vacation Bench of the Delhi HC.
An Enforcement Directorate (ED) counsel flagged before Justice Jain that the trial Judge in its order has expressed inability to go through thousands of pages submitted by the rival parties. On that, Justice Jain stated but the trial court still must work upon the matter whichever comes for consideration and pass the order per law.
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Justice Jain said documents and arguments were not appreciated properly by the trial court. This court is of the view that the trial court has not applied its mind and has not considered the material properly, he remarked.
The vacation Bench of the Delhi High Court had reserved the order on June 21 on the petition filed by the ED challenging the trial court’s decision.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday will hear the plea of Arvind Kejriwal who had challenged the Delhi High Court’s order granting an interim stay on bail to him by the trial court in the liquor policy case probed by the ED.
A vacation Bench of Justices Manoj Misra and SVN Bhatti had found the High Court’s decision to give an interim stay without passing an order on Kejriwal’s bail “unusual”. “In stay matters, judgments are not reserved but passed on the spot. What has happened here is unusual. We will have it (case before it) the day after,” the Bench said while hearing the matter on Monday.