SC Won't Hear Kejriwal's Plea For 7-Day Bail Extension

The Supreme Court last month granted interim bail to Arvind Kejriwal to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections and had asked him to surrender on June 2, a day after the last polling phase.

Arvind Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money laundering case linked to the alleged Delhi excise or liquor policy 'scam' on March 21 and was subsequently sent to judicial custody. He was lodged in Delhi's Tihar jail.

The Supreme Court registrar, while refusing the plea, said that the Delhi Chief Minister was given permission to move trial court for regular bail, and hence this petition is "not maintainable", an NDTV report mentioned.

The Supreme Court had on Tuesday said that the Chief Justice of India (CJI) will decide on the urgent listing of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's plea seeking extension of his interim bail by seven days.

On May 26, the chief minister filed the plea seeking extension of his interim bail by seven days to undergo a host of medical tests, including a PET-CT scan given his "sudden and unexplained weight loss, coupled with high ketone levels", which are indicative of kidney, serious cardiac ailments and even cancer.

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Refusing to list Kejriwal's interim plea on its own, a vacation bench comprising Justices JK Maheshwari and KV Viswanathan asked senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for the chief minister, why it was not mentioned last week when Justice Dipankar Datta, one of the judges of the main bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna which had granted the interim bail to him, was sitting on the vacation bench.

"Why did you not mention it when Justice Datta was sitting on the vacation bench last week? Let the Hon'ble CJI take a decision as it raises the issue of propriety...we will send it to the CJI," news agency PTI quoted the bench as saying on Tuesday.

Singhvi said the prescription was given a day before yesterday and hence, it could not be mentioned before the vacation bench to which Justice Datta was part last week.