In its order Friday, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, while granting bail to Kejriwal, underlined the significance of participatory democracy saying, “General Elections supply the vis viva (force that moves) to a democracy”.
In granting interim bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to campaign for elections, the Supreme Court has made an unprecedented intervention to ostensibly ensure a level playing field in elections — a move that potentially opens the door for other political detainees.
In its order Friday, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, while granting bail to Kejriwal, underlined the significance of participatory democracy saying, “General Elections supply the vis viva (force that moves) to a democracy”.
“It is no gain saying that the General Elections to Lok Sabha is the most significant and an important event this year… Between 650-700 million voters out of an electorate of about 970 million will cast their votes to elect the government of this country for the next five years,” the bench said.
The top court’s reasoning in effect affirmed the argument made by Kejriwal’s counsel, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, that a level playing field during elections was part of the basic structure of the Constitution.
“Democracy is part of basic structure, free and fair elections are part of basic structure and a level-playing field is also part of basic structure,” Singhvi had argued on May 7.
However, the Supreme Court’s decision sets a new precedent regarding political obligation in elections. So far, the Supreme Court has intervened to uphold the release of political leaders by high courts, granting them regular bail during their trial, rather than interim bail, which is required due to special circumstances. It is an incident.
This is also evident in the cases cited by the Supreme Court itself in its Kejriwal order.
In January, the Supreme Court granted bail to TDP leader and former Andhra Pradesh CM N. Chandrababu Naidu, followed by Odisha state BJP leader Shiva Sankar Das in March. Ta. In both cases, the Supreme Court emphasized the right to political expression, which should not be limited by bail conditions.
In September last year, the Calcutta High Court had ruled that the ED cannot take coercive action against TMC chief Abhishek Banerjee until the polls are over. In March, the ED had informed the Supreme Court that it would abide by the apex court’s “no coercive action” order.
In its Kejriwal order, the Supreme Court stated that interim bail can be granted based on the “facts of each case” and that “this case is ‘not an anomaly'”, but acknowledged the high political risks and He pointed out as follows. The accused, Arvind Kejriwal, is the chief minister of Delhi and the leader of one of the national political parties. ”
This is important in that it leaves the door open to further such intervention in view of the election. Former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, who was arrested on January 31 in a money laundering case, is applying for bail in the Supreme Court. The state will go to polls in the last four phases of Lok Sabha elections from May 13.
The Supreme Court’s order not only allows Mr. Kejriwal to campaign but also partially restricts Mr. Kejriwal’s role as Prime Minister.
The Supreme Court allowed Mr. Kejriwal to sign official documents “necessary and necessary to obtain the sanction/approval of the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi” in one of the five bail conditions.
Mr. Kejriwal’s main role in the government as Chief Minister without any portfolio is to communicate publicly with the LG on all issues.