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SC trashes plea seeking to remove Kejriwal as CM, says it is up to Delhi LG

The Supreme Court granted Arvind Kejriwal interim bail in the excise policy scam to enable him to campaign in the Lok Sabha elections.

ByPTI

Published May 13, 2024 | 8:19 PM ⚊ Updated May 13, 2024 | 8:20 PM

SC trashes plea to remove Kejriwal as CM

Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Monday, 13 May, dismissed a plea seeking the removal of Arvind Kejriwal as the Delhi chief minister after his arrest in a money laundering case, holding that the petitioner had no legal right to seek his ouster.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta said resignation in such circumstances is a matter of propriety but there is no legal right to seek removal of Kejriwal as the CM following his arrest.

“What is the legal right? On propriety, you may certainly have something to say, but there is no legal right. It’s up to the LG (Lieutenant Governor) to take action if he wants to. We are not inclined to entertain this (petition),” the bench told petitioner Kant Bhati’s counsel.

The bench, while dismissing the appeal challenging the 10 April order of the Delhi High Court said, “When the matter (Kejriwal’s petition against arrest) was being heard, we had posed the same question to them. Ultimately, it is a matter of propriety and there is no legal right.”

It pointed out that several petitions on the issue have been dismissed by the HC.

Also Read: ‘We have to save country from dictatorship together’: Kejriwal after walking out of Tihar jail

On 10 April, the HC had expressed its displeasure over repeated filing of petitions seeking Kejriwal’s removal. The court said once it had dealt with the issue and opined that it fell within the executive domain, there should not be any “repeat litigation” as it was not a “James Bond movie that will have sequels”.

It had pulled up petitioner Sandeep Kumar, a former AAP MLA, who sought Kejriwal’s ouster from the office, for trying to involve the court in a “political thicket” and said it would impose costs of Rs 50,000 on him.

On 28 March, the court dismissed another PIL for Arvind Kejriwal’s removal, saying that while the petitioner had failed to show any legal bar that prohibited the arrested CM from holding office, there was also no scope for judicial interference in such cases as it was for the other organs of the State to consider the issue.

Another similar PIL was dismissed by the court on 4 April, saying it was Kejriwal’s personal choice to continue as the CM and granted liberty to the petitioner to approach the Lieutenant Governor (LG).

Last week, the top court granted Kejriwal interim bail in the case, which stemmed from the alleged excise policy scam, to enable him to campaign in the Lok Sabha elections but barred him from visiting his office or the Delhi secretariat, and signing official files unless absolutely necessary for obtaining the LG’s approval.

Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on 21 March, hours after the Delhi HC refused to grant him protection from coercive action by the federal anti-money laundering agency.

Also Read: Kejriwal says all Opposition leaders will be in jail if BJP wins

(Disclaimer: The headline, subheads, and intro of this report along with the photos may have been reworked by South First. The rest of the content is from a syndicated feed, and has been edited for style.)