Describing elections as the lifeline and barometer of parliamentary democracy, Supreme Court granted interim bail to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal to enable him to campaign for his party, and INDIA alliance but imposed stiff conditions. He will be on bail till June 1 and surrender the next day.
Stepping out of Tihar Jail shortly after 7pm, Kejriwal said he will continue to fight against “dictatorship” and urged people to join him in his struggle. Addressing his supporters and the media from the sunroof of his vehicle, he said he was out because of the “blessings of Lord Hanuman and would visit the Hanuman temple at Connaught Place.
A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, which had earlier questioned Enforcement Directorate on Kejriwal’s arrest just before elections and also on the time gap between registration of the excise policy case and arrest, said the CM not appearing before the agency despite nine summons was a negative factor. He, however, deserved interim relief as his arrest was under judicial scrutiny, it added. The bench said Kejriwal was an elected CM with no criminal record and was not a threat to society.
The SC bench turned down Kejriwal’s plea that he be allowed to stay out till counting of votes and declaration of results on June 4. It, in fact, barred Kejriwal from visiting his office and Delhi Secretariat. It also forbade him from signing any documents unless it was necessary for LG’s approval.
The court stressed that grant of interim bail would not be treated as an expression of its opinion on the merits of the case. What weighed in Kejriwal’s favour and prompted the court to grant relief was the ongoing polls which it called “most significant and an important event” and rejected ED’s argument that extending relief to him would amount to treating politicians as a separate class as such relief could not be extended to the common man.
“Between 650-700 million voters out of an electorate of about 970 million will cast their votes to elect the government of this country for the next five years. General elections supply the vis viva (living force) to a democracy. Given the prodigious importance, we reject the argument raised on behalf of the prosecution that grant of interim bail/release on this account would….(mean) placing the politicians in a benefic position compared to ordinary citizens of this country. While examining the question of grant of interim bail/release, the courts always take into consideration the peculiarities associated with the person in question and the surrounding circumstances. In fact, to ignore the same would be iniquitous and wrong,” the bench said.
