NEW DELHI: A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court will on Friday hear Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's plea against his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in an excise policy-linked money laundering case.
As soon as a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud assembled, senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Kejriwal, mentioned the matter for urgent listing.
Singhvi said he was mentioning a matter of "some significance and urgency".
"If this process goes on, I am very sorry to say, before the first vote is cast, a lot of senior leaders will be behind bars. I am imploring your lordships to take it up urgently either in the middle of the board or the end of the board," Singhvi said.
Justice Chandrachud said a special three-judge bench is convening in Justice Sanjiv Khanna's court, and Singhvi can mention the matter before that bench.
"The special bench is over, almost," the senior counsel said.
"Then you can go right away to Justice Khanna and it will be taken up," the CJI said, adding, "Just go to that bench because that bench is available".
"You can just mention that the Chief Justice has assigned it to Justice Sanjiv Khanna's court," Justice Chandrachud told Singhvi.
Singhvi then rushed to Justice Khanna's court but the special three-judge bench also comprising Justices MM Sundresh and Bela M Trivedi, which had assembled to hear BRS leader K Kavitha's plea challenging her arrest in the Delhi excise policy scam case and the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), was over by that time.
The senior counsel mentioned the matter before Justice Khanna, who was sitting on the regular bench along with Justice Dipankar Datta.
Singhvi said the CJI has asked him to mention Kejriwal's plea before Justice Khanna's bench.
Justice Khanna said Kejriwal's plea will be heard by a three-judge bench.
"We will assemble after the regular bench gets over in a while," Justice Khanna said.
Kejriwal had moved the Supreme Court late Thursday after the ED arrested him.
He was arrested hours after the Delhi High Court refused to grant protection to the AAP national convenor from any coercive action by the agency.
A high court division bench headed by Justice Suresh Kumar Kait had refused to grant Kejriwal the relief of interim protection from coercive action and listed his application seeking the relief for consideration on April 22, when his main petition challenging the ED's summons was fixed for hearing.
The high court had also asked the ED to file its response to Kejriwal's application seeking protection from coercive action.
The case pertains to alleged corruption and money laundering in formulating and executing the Delhi government's excise policy for 2021-22, which was later scrapped.
AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh are in judicial custody in the case.
Kejriwal's name has been mentioned multiple times in the charge sheets filed by the ED.
The agency has alleged that the accused were in touch with Kejriwal to formulate the excise policy that resulted in undue benefits to them in return for which they paid kickbacks to the AAP.
