No relief to Manish Sisodia, SC judge recuses himself from hearing, directs to file petition in appropriate bench

Manish SisodiaThe petition of: Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi Excise Policy case (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia has not got relief from the Supreme Court. Top court judge Justice Sanjay Kumar on Thursday recused himself from hearing Sisodia’s plea. In fact, Sisodia’s bail plea has been rejected by the Delhi High Court. Challenging this decision of the High Court, the AAP leader has demanded a fresh hearing on his plea from the Supreme Court. Now Justice Sanjay Kumar has recused himself from hearing this plea. Not only this, the court has directed Sisodia to put his plea before the appropriate bench next week.

Earlier on Monday, the apex court said it would consider listing Sisodia’s fresh plea seeking rehearing of his bail plea in the alleged excise policy scam cases. On Tuesday, the court had refused to entertain Sisodia’s bail pleas in the cases registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the alleged Delhi Excise Policy Scam on June 4.

Singhvi is Sisodia’s lawyer

Sisodia’s counsel and senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi said that an application has been filed for re-hearing of the petition seeking bail in the cases which has already been disposed of. The petition said that the law officer appearing for the investigating agencies had told the bench that the chargesheet and prosecution complaint in the main case of the alleged excise policy scam and the money laundering case related to it would be filed on or before July 3, 2024.

Sisodia has been in jail for 16 months

Singhvi said, ‘Manish Sisodia has been in jail for 16 months. The court said that the hearing of the case should be completed but it has not even started. I filed a special leave petition (SLP), they allowed me to file the petition again after July 3. The court allowed listing. The Chief Justice said, ‘Have you e-mailed … I will look into it.’ The court refused to consider Sisodia’s bail petitions but also said that Sisodia can re-file his petitions for bail after the Enforcement Directorate and Central Bureau of Investigation file their final prosecution complaint and charge sheet in cases related to corruption and money laundering.

The court considered the arguments of Tushar Mehta

The prosecution complaint is similar to the ED chargesheet. The vacation bench of Justice Arvind Kumar and Justice Sandeep Mehta had considered the arguments of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the ED and the CBI, that the central investigating agencies will file their final prosecution complaint and chargesheet by July 3. AAP leader Sisodia had approached the apex court challenging the Delhi High Court’s May 21 decision in which his bail plea was rejected.

Sisodia was arrested on 26 February 2023

Earlier, Sisodia had challenged in the high court the lower court’s April 30 order rejecting his bail pleas in cases related to alleged irregularities in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy. The CBI arrested Sisodia on February 26, 2023 for his alleged role in the liquor policy case. The ED arrested him on March 9, 2023 in a money laundering case based on a CBI FIR.