New Delhi, February 12 The Delhi High Court on Thursday allowed AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal to withdraw his petition challenging the summons issued to him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with its investigation into a money laundering case linked to the excise policy.
A senior lawyer representing the former Delhi chief minister stated that he did not wish to pursue the matter further, as he had already been acquitted in the criminal cases against him for failing to appear before the agency in compliance with the summons.
Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, representing the Enforcement Directorate (ED), said the agency would file an appeal against the decision of the trial court.
"Much water has flowed under the bridge. I will not pursue the petition. I will raise the constitutional issues at an appropriate stage," Kejriwal's senior lawyer said.
"Accordingly, the petition is dismissed as withdrawn," a bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia said.
The bench clarified that all the legal pleas in the petition remained open.
On January 22, the trial court acquitted Kejriwal in two separate cases filed against him for not appearing before the ED in compliance with the summons asking him to join the investigation in the alleged excise policy scam.
Observing that the accused was a serving chief minister and "he also enjoyed his fundamental right of movement," the trial court held that "the legal challenge to the due service of summons is maintainable," and the ED failed to prove that Kejriwal intentionally disobeyed the summons.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener had approached the high court in this matter in the wake of the ninth summons issued by the ED asking him to appear before it on March 21, 2024.
The high court bench had on March 20, 2024, asked the ED to file its response with respect to the maintainability of the petition.
The next day, it asked the ED to also respond to Kejriwal's plea seeking protection from arrest, saying "at this stage" it was not inclined to grant him any interim relief. Kejriwal was subsequently arrested by the ED that evening.
Kejriwal is currently on interim bail in the money laundering case, with the Supreme Court referring questions on the aspect of "need and necessity of arrest" under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to a larger bench for in-depth consideration.
After being arrested by the CBI in the alleged corruption case on June 26, 2024, he was granted bail in the matter on September 13, 2024 by the top court.
The ED has alleged that other accused in the case were in contact with Kejriwal for formulating the now-scrapped excise policy that resulted in undue benefits to them and kickbacks to AAP.
In his petition, Kejriwal also challenged the constitutional validity of certain provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) with respect to arrest, questioning, and granting of bail.
He raised several issues, including whether a political party is covered under the anti-money laundering law.
He alleged that an "arbitrary procedure" under PMLA was being used to create an uneven playing field for the general elections to "skew the electoral process in favour of the ruling party at the Centre".
Stating that the petitioner is a "vocal critic" of the ruling party and a partner of the opposition INDIA bloc, the plea claimed that the ED, being under the control of the Union government, has been "weaponized".