The Delhi High Court on Thursday refused to entertain a public interest litigation seeking removal of Arvind Kejriwal, who has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in the liquor policy scam case, from the post of the chief minister.
"At times, personal interest has to be subordinate to national interest but that is his personal call. We are a court of law and have to go by the law. Your remedy does not lie here, it lies elsewhere. You go before the competent forum," said a division bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan.
“Let democracy take its own course,” the court further observed.
The PIL was filed by Vishnu Gupta, a social worker and the national president of the Hindu Sena. His counsel argued that after Kejriwal’s arrest on March 21, there is an absolute lack of government in the national capital.
The petitioner further claimed that if Kejriwal is guilty of constitutional breach of trust, he has no business to continue on the post of chief minister, and that someone else from the Aam Aadmi Party can be appointed on the post.
The court, however, observed it as a practical issue rather than a legal issue. “We won't go into this. We will declare that the government is not functioning? Governor is fully competent. He does not need our guidance,” it said.
The court noted that it had dismissed a similar PIL recently and now cannot take a different view.
Kejriwal was arrested by the central probe agency on March 21. He had been in ED custody till April 1 when a Delhi court remanded him to judicial custody till April 15.
The chief minister has challenged his arrest in the high court which reserved its order on Wednesday, after completing the hearing.
The ED, which is probing the money laundering allegations in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped excise policy, claims that Kejriwal was the "kingpin" and the "key conspirator" of the scam.
The probe agency reiterates that the AAP was a major beneficiary of the proceeds of crime generated in the liquor policy scam. Part of the proceeds of crime to the tune of Rs. 45 crore has been utilised in the election campaign of AAP in the Goa Assembly elections 2022, it says.
