Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who had ignored nine summonses by the Enforcement Directorate before his dramatic arrest late yesterday in connection with the alleged liquor policy scam, has reportedly withdrawn his petition from the Supreme Court against his arrest.
AM Singhvi, Congress leader and lawyer representing Arvind Kejriwal, told the Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna that the Supreme Court petition was “clashing with remand”. Singhvi said, “Otherwise there will be arguments of remand and then High Court and then..”.
Justice Khanna allowed Singhvi to withdraw the petition and approach the lower court instead.
What did AM Singhvi do when he mentioned ‘Remand hearing” in the Supreme Court
It might seem strange that after knocking on the doors of the Supreme Court, demanding a midnight hearing, Arvind Kejriwal withdrew his petition against ED arrest when he finally got the hearing that he wanted.
However, there is a well-thought legal strategy behind the move.
Firstly, it is important to understand what AM Singhvi meant when he said that the petition was “clashing with remand”.
After ED or any agency arrests an accused, it is procedural for the accused to be presented before the district court, seeking remand. After hearing the agency as to the reasons behind the arrest, the court then grants remand to the agency – the remand could be judicial remand, police remand or remand to the agency as the court deems fit.
When AM Singhvi mentioned “remand hearing”, he meant the hearing in the district court where Arvind Kejriwal would be produced by the ED seeking remand of the scam accused after his arrest late last night.
Why did Arvind Kejriwal and his legal team decide to take their chances in the District Court instead of the Supreme Court?
One may believe that all legal strategy merely comprises how the facts of the case need to be argued in a court of law, however, there is far more to it. One of the elements that all lawyers take into consideration is also how the court has responded to similar cases in the recent past.
On 22nd March itself, the Supreme Court made it clear that it was in no mood to grant relief to corrupt politicians.
Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader K Kavitha, who was arrested last week in the same case, had her petition rejected by the apex court. Interestingly, the same bench that handled Ms Kavitha’s case was assigned to consider Arvind Kejriwal’s plea.
Ms. Kavitha was advised to seek relief, including bail, from the trial court. The bench comprising Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice MM Sundresh, and Justice Bela Trivedi declined to entertain the petition, stating that individuals, regardless of their influence such as being a senior political figure or Chief Minister, cannot directly approach the Supreme Court without going through the lower courts.
To this end, lawyer Kapil Sibal even tacitly threatened the court saying in essence that history would not be very kind to the court when this case is recounted. To this, the bench shot down the theatrics by Sibal and asked them to approach the lower court for bail.
Incidentally, it was the same bench that was meant to hear the petition against the arrest of Arvind Kejriwal.
Arvind Kejriwal clearly realised that the Supreme Court would not be inclined to give him relief from arrest, given the precedent that had just been set by the denial of relief to K Kavitha. K Kavitha has incidentally been arrested in the same liquor scam in which Arvind Kejriwal has been arrested.
It is therefore safe to assume that the petition was withdrawn from the Supreme Court by Arvind Kejriwal because his legal team was inclined to believe that the Supreme Court would refuse to give him relief.
Further, it is also safe to assume that ED, fighting the petition by Kejriwal, would provide substantial evidence against him, accused of the liquor scam, and the legal team was simply not willing to take the risk of facts coming out in the Supreme Court so soon – denying AAP the victim card.
Kejriwal will now challenge the arrest in a district court when produced for remand by the Enforcement Directorate.
Details of the Liquor Scam in which K Kavitha and Arvind Kejriwal have been arrested
The Delhi Excise Policy 2021-2022 was first proposed in September 2020 but came into effect only in November 2021. It changed how alcohol was being sold in the National Capital. Introduced private players in the market and marked the exit of government-owned liquor vendors.
Delhi was divided into 32 zones and a total of 27 private vendors were to ply in each zone. Every municipal ward had 2-3 liquor vendors operating in the area. Proposals such as home delivery of liquor, allowing liquor vendors to offer unlimited discounts and opening of stores till 3 am were also tabled before the Delhi Cabinet.
The drastic policy change resulted in a 27% increase in government revenue to ₹8900 crores. At the same time, it marked the complete exit of the Delhi government from the liquor business. While the objective of Excise Policy 2021-2022 was to end black marketing and the liquor mafia, the Delhi government soon came under fire over allegations of corruption.
Chief Secretary of Delhi, Naresh Kumar, found irregularities and procedural lapses in the new liquor policy. Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena ordered a CBI probe on the recommendation of Naresh Kumar. Manish Sisodia waived off ₹144.36 crores on the license fee, to be paid by the private liquor vendors, under the garb of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Incurred loss to the Excise Department and benefitted liquor licensees by waiving the import pass fee of ₹50 per beer case. All these changes were made without the final approval of the Lieutenant Governor and thus considered illegal under the Delhi Excise Rules of 2010 and Transaction of Business Rules of 1993.
Thus, the Delhi government made a U-turn on its new excise policy in July 2022. A month later, CBI booked Manish Sisodia, ex-Only Much Louder (OML) CEO Vijay Nair and 13 others in an FIR for irregularities in the implementation of the Delhi Excise Policy 2021-2022.
Sisodia was arrested in February 2023 while Kejriwal was arrested on 21st March 2024. Not until long ago, AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal was out with all guns blazing against corruption, trying to portray himself as an anti-corruption crusader in this process.
Earlier last week, Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) leader K Kavitha was arrested after the Income Tax Department and Enforcement Directorate officials raided her residence in Hyderabad. K Kavitha’s role in the scam came to light after the arrest of AAP leader and former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia. According to the Enforcement Directorate, she is a member of the ‘South Cartel,’ which allegedly received payments in the case.
