Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Arvind Kejriwal’s Appeal Today, Dealing a Setback to Him

The Supreme Court will reopen next Monday, and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader’s petition is expected to come up then. It is learned that the court will not constitute a special bench for an urgent hearing on Mr. Kejriwal’s appeal.

According to the Supreme Court’s calendar, the court is closed for Eid-Ul-Fitr on Thursday, a local holiday on Friday, and then the weekend. Mr. Kejriwal’s counsel, Senior Advocate Abhishek Singhvi, raised the matter before Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud this morning and sought an urgent hearing.

The Chief Justice refused to specify if a hearing will be granted today, saying, “We will see, we will look into it.” The high court yesterday dismissed Mr. Kejriwal’s challenge to his March 21 arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case linked to Delhi’s now-scrapped liquor policy.

The court emphasized that there is no separate protocol for a probe agency to follow for questioning a common man and a Chief Minister. AAP leader and Delhi Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj has expressed hope for a favorable verdict in the Supreme Court, stating that the ED and the CBI did not find even a rupee during their searches in connection with the Delhi liquor policy case.

He also alleged that witnesses have been pressured to change their statements and that “This issue is not about money laundering. This is the biggest political conspiracy in India’s history.”