What an irony it is that Kejriwal can remain the Chief Minister even while in jail but cannot work as Chief Minister after coming out of jail!
On July 12, the Supreme Court granted bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the ED case related to the alleged liquor policy scam. Two months later, on September 13, it granted him bail in the CBI case as well. In both the cases, similar and very stringent bail conditions were imposed. The conditions imposed while granting bail to the Chief Minister are surprising. Because the Supreme Court itself has said in many cases that conditions should be imposed after careful consideration while granting bail. Kejriwal’s case is even more surprising because when he was in jail, a bench of two judges of the Supreme Court considered the question whether he could sign files related to government decisions while being in jail. But another bench granted him bail and banned him from signing the files.
A case came before the bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Augustine George Masih in the Supreme Court, in which a convicted petitioner serving jail term had said that the Delhi government was delaying in pardoning his sentence. When the judges asked about this, the lawyer of the Delhi government said that Chief Minister Kejriwal is in jail, so he is not able to sign the files, which is causing the delay. Then the court had asked the Additional Solicitor General whether there is any ban order to prevent Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal from performing his duties from jail? The bench said that we want to investigate this because hundreds of cases will be affected by this. On this question, Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati said that she will take instructions on this issue. After this, she will inform the court. This is a case of September 5.
A week later, on September 13, a bench of Justice Ujjwal Bhuinya and Justice Suryakant granted bail to Kejriwal but imposed a condition among many conditions that he will not be able to sign files. Not only this, the court also said that he will not go to the Chief Minister’s office. The conditions that are usually imposed in bail such as the accused will not tamper with evidence and witnesses or will not make statements about the case, will fill the bail bond, will appear before the court and agency when required, etc., all such conditions are imposed on Kejriwal as well. But this condition on the Chief Minister that he will not go to the office and will not sign files is excessive. The conditions of bail should be such that it is reasonable, does not hinder the discharge of personal or public responsibilities of the person and does not hurt his self-respect.