‘If High Court made mistake, why should we repeat?’ Top court in Kejriwal case

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to pass an immediate order to overturn the Delhi High Court’s decision to stay Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s bail.

The top court, while orally observing that the High Court’s approach was “a bit unusual”, advised the Chief Minister to wait for the High Court’s order.

A vacation bench of Justices Manoj Misra and SV Bhatti was hearing Arvind Kejriwal’s plea challenging the Delhi High Court’s stay on his bail in the liquor policy case. The High Court paused the bail granted to Kejriwal by a lower court on the Enforcement Directorate’s plea and said it would pronounce the order on June 25.

Senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singvhi and Vikram Chaudhary, appearing for Kejriwal, said the Delhi High Court did not wait for the trial court’s bail order before putting a hold on it.

“If the High Court can stay it without seeing the order, why can’t your lordships stay the High Court order,” Singhvi argued. aTo this, Justice Misra said, “If the High Court has committed a mistake, should we repeat it?”

Singhvi further stated that the stay on the bail order was unprecedented and declared that Kejriwal was not a flight risk. The bench indicated that the final order could be expected imminently and advised all parties to wait patiently. At this, Singhvi raised concerns about the loss of time after obtaining bail.

“Why can’t I be free in the interim? I have a judgment in my favour,” Singhvi argued.

The bench noted that while the High Court’s stay was “unusual”, as such orders are passed “on the spot” immediately after the hearing and are not reserved, passing the order now would mean “prejudging the issue”.

“If we pass an order now, we will be prejudging the issue. It is not a subordinate court, it is a High Court,” Justice Misra said.

The Delhi High Court will pronounce its order on Tuesday, June 25, at 2.30 pm. The Supreme Court will take up Kejriwal’s plea a day later, June 26.