Delhi Court rejects Arvind Kejriwal’s request for additional time with lawyers

Delhi Court rejects Arvind Kejriwal’s request for additional time with lawyers

A Delhi Court on Wednesday (April 10) dismissed an application filed by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is under arrest in a money laundering case, requesting additional time with his lawyers.

The court said that the rules and regulations applied equally to him and other detainees. It was alleged that Kejriwal had utilised the legal consultations allowed by the court to issue certain administrative directives.

While rejecting Kejriwal’s plea for five meetings with his lawyers every week, Special judge for CBI and ED cases, Kaveri Baweja, said that he failed to prove to the court that he had been using the two permitted legal meetings per week solely for discussing pending litigations with his counsel.

“The status report/note submitted by the ED indicates that the applicant had provided certain directives to be conveyed to the Water Minister through one of his lawyers whose identity he declined to disclose to the ED during a legal meeting. This indicates that the applicant is not making use of the permitted two legal consultations per week with his legal representatives solely for discussing his pending legal matters. Instead, he has utilised the allocated time for purposes other than legal consultations in the aforementioned manner,” the judge stated.

The judge referred to a Delhi High Court ruling which emphasised that every citizen of India is entitled to the protection of the law, and this entitlement shall be equally applicable to him.

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The ED had opposed Kejriwal’s application, stating special privileges cannot be extended to him merely because he wants to run the government from inside the jail.

It had alleged that legal interviews were being misused by Kejriwal for purposes other than consultation.

Kejriwal has issued some instructions on matters related to governance from behind bars and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has asserted he will run the government from jail.

(With inputs from agencies)