In a significant setback for Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed his plea for a seven-day extension of his interim bail on medical grounds. The court ruled that since a verdict on the challenge to his arrest is pending, Kejriwal’s request for an extension is irrelevant to the main petition. Consequently, the court permitted him to seek regular bail from the trial court.
Kejriwal had obtained interim bail from Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta on May 10, with an instruction to surrender to Tihar jail by June 2. However, his plea for an extension was turned down by the apex court’s vacation bench on Tuesday. Justices JK Maheshwari and KV Viswanathan, while refusing to list the plea, questioned why it had not been mentioned earlier when Justice Dipankar Datta, one of the judges on the bench that granted interim bail, was sitting on the vacation bench last week. The bench decided to refer the matter to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) to address concerns of propriety.
Kejriwal’s plea cited health reasons, seeking time for medical tests, including a PET-CT scan, due to sudden weight loss and elevated ketone levels. He proposed to surrender to jail on June 9 instead of June 2. Since his release on May 10, Kejriwal has been active in campaigning for the I.N.D.I.A bloc in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. However, the bail terms restrict him from interacting with witnesses or accessing official case files.
While the interim bail remains in effect until June 1, Kejriwal must surrender to authorities on June 2. The Supreme Court’s refusal to extend his bail adds complexity to Kejriwal’s legal situation as he navigates both health concerns and his political commitments.
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