Supreme Court rejects urgent hearing for Arind Kejriwal's bail extension in LiquorGate scandal

A vacation bench of the Supreme Court on May 28 rejected the urgent hearing for an extension of the bail plea of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. 

The extension of the bail plea was in connection with the LiquorGate scandal case on medical grounds. 

The bench stated that the case had previously been considered and that the decision was now pending after hearing the appeal for a seven-day extension of interim bail. The Supreme Court emphasised that the final decision about the case's listing will be made by the CJI. 

Senior attorney Abhishek Singhvi, who was representing the chief minister, made submissions that were noted by a vacation bench made up of Justices JK Maheshwari and KV Viswanathan. The bench stated that the "Honourable CJI" would make the decision regarding the listing of the interim plea because the main matter judgement has been reserved.

The bench asked Singhvi why the plea of Kejriwal was not mentioned for urgent listing last week when Justice Dipankar Datta, one of the judges of the main bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna which had granted the interim bail to the chief minister, was sitting on the vacation bench.

Seeking to undertake a variety of medical tests, including a PET-CT scan in light of his "sudden and unexplained weight loss, coupled with high ketone levels," which are symptomatic of kidney, major cardiac problems, and even cancer, Kejriwal has asked for a seven-day extension of his temporary release. 

In a new plea submitted on May 26, the chief minister announced that he will turn himself in to jail officials on June 9 rather than June 2, as that was his original scheduled date of return. In order to allow the chief minister to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections, the top court on May 10 granted him 21 days of temporary bail. The chief minister had been detained in connection with a money laundering case involving the excise policy "scam."