New Delhi, March 11 – AAP National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal has submitted a petition to the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, seeking the transfer of the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) revision petition in the Delhi excise policy case from the bench of Justice Swarna Kanta Sharma.
In his petition, former Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal requested Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya – who is in charge of the court's roster – that the case be reassigned to a different bench of the Delhi High Court.
The CBI's revision plea challenges the Rouse Avenue Court's order that acquitted all 23 accused, including Kejriwal and former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, in the case related to the now-scrapped excise policy introduced by the then AAP-led Delhi government.
Earlier this week, a single-judge bench of Justice Swarna Kanta Sharma had issued notices to Kejriwal, Sisodia, and other respondents in response to the CBI's petition challenging the trial court's decision to acquit the accused.
During the hearing, the Delhi High Court also stayed the trial court's order directing departmental action against a CBI officer who had investigated the case, stating that any remarks made against the investigating agency and the officer would remain suspended.
The Delhi High Court indicated that the matter would be taken up for further hearing next week.
Separately, on Tuesday, Justice Sharma's bench issued a notice in response to a petition filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) seeking to have certain adverse observations made against it by the trial court while acquitting the accused in the excise policy case.
The ED has argued that the observations were "irrelevant to the subject matter" of the proceedings and were made despite the anti-money laundering agency not being a party to the trial court when the acquittal order was passed.
Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju had argued that the observations were recorded without giving the ED an opportunity to present its case and could prejudice its ongoing investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
During the hearing, Justice Sharma said that the Delhi High Court would consider the ED's grievance along with the CBI's revision petition, as the entire judgment of the trial court was already under challenge before it.
The CBI, in its petition before the High Court, has challenged the trial court's decision to acquit all the accused, arguing that the order was "perverse" and effectively amounted to an acquittal without trial.
According to the investigating agency, the excise policy was allegedly manipulated to benefit certain private liquor entities, including the so-called 'South Group', in exchange for alleged upfront bribes.
However, the trial court had rejected the prosecution's theory of a overarching conspiracy and held that the contemporaneous record indicated that the policy was the outcome of a consultative and deliberative process carried out in accordance with prescribed procedure.