Delhi High Court Issues Notice To Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia In Excise Policy Case

Delhi High Court on Monday issued notices to Arvind Kejriwal, former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, and 21 others on a plea filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) challenging their discharge in the Delhi excise policy case.

A single-judge bench of Justice Swarna Kanta Sharma sought responses from the accused on the CBI’s criminal revision petition that contests the trial court’s order refusing to frame charges and discharging all 23 accused.

The High Court also stayed the trial court’s direction ordering departmental action against the CBI officer who investigated the case. It said the remarks made against the investigating agency and the officer would remain.

“I will pass an order staying the remarks made against the investigating agency and the officer,” Justice Sharma said during the hearing

The judge also indicated that the trial court at the Rouse Avenue Courts Complex should defer proceedings in the linked money laundering case. The Enforcement Directorate is investigating the case, and the hearing will wait until the High Court decides the CBI’s revision petition.

“I will ask the trial court to postpone the hearing of the PMLA case to a date after the hearing before this court,” Justice Sharma said, listing the matter for further hearing next Monday.

During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the High Court that the trial court’s order discharging the accused was ‘perverse’ and effectively amounted to an acquittal without trial.

“This is a petition challenging the discharge order. The basic charge is that a manipulated policy created which facilitated certain traders,” SG Mehta said, adding that the order ‘turns criminal law on its head’.

CBI Terms Case One Of Biggest Scams

According to the CBI, the case involves ‘one of the biggest scams in the history of the national Capital’.

The agency argued that there was sufficient corroborative material, including witness testimonies, emails and WhatsApp chats.

“This is an order of acquittal without trial. There is a clear case of corruption — bribes being taken, accepted and utilised, meetings taking place and forensic evidence being available,” SG Mehta submitted.

The CBI alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party-led government tailored the now-scrapped excise policy to benefit certain private liquor entities, including the ‘South Group’, in exchange for alleged upfront bribes routed for electoral purposes.

However, the trial court had rejected the agency’s ‘theory of an overarching conspiracy’, observing that available records showed the policy emerged from a consultative and deliberative process conducted in accordance with prescribed procedures.