Arvind Kejriwal furnishes bail bond, court orders release from jail
The court says the release order will be sent to the Tihar Jail through a special messenger
New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday furnished a bail bond of Rs10,000 for his release from Tihar jail, where he spent six days in a case of defamation filed against him by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Nitin Gadkari.
At the same time, the Delhi high court allowed him to pursue his challenge against the order of a lower court that sent him to jail on 21 May for refusing to furnish bail.
Kejriwal’s lawyer Shanti Bhushan told a bench comprising justices Kailash Gambhir and Sunita Gupta that the challenge was against the practice of sending to jail those who fail to furnish a bail bond or personal bail in summons proceedings or private complaint cases.
A summons case is a criminal proceeding for minor offences.
Calling it in “outdated concept," Shanti Bhushan prayed for relief to litigants sent to jail for not furnishing a bail bond even after they appeared before the courts, which was the intention of the law.
“If he (Kejriwal) had given the bail bond, he’d be precluded from raising this issue which is of great public importance," another lawyer, Prashant Bhushan, said. “The Court will now hear the matter on merits. Lakhs of people face harassment and the court’s time is wasted. Hopefully now it will be decided and resolved in favour of the people."
Gadkari’s counsel Pinky Anand called this a “facetious and unhappy argument".
She argued that the procedure of furnishing a bail bond or a personal bond was to ensure the presence of someone summoned to the courts in a criminal proceeding and that this would apply to everybody.
“Everybody is bound by the law. Who is he to say what he’ll do or not do" she said. “It has been done to gain political mileage because the Aam Aadmi Party has faced complete rejection by the people in the country."
The bench had, in the beginning of the hearing, suggested that Kejriwal be released on furnishing bail to prevent him from staying in Tihar jail till the disposal of the petition before the high court.
The proposal to allow Kejriwal to pursue the challenge against the lower court’s order while allowing him to furnish a bail bond seemed to appease the petitioner.
Gadkari, who was appointed a minister in the BJP-led cabinet that was sworn in to office on Monday, had filed a complaint against Kejriwal for including his name in a list of corrupt politicians circulated during the 2014 general elections campaign.
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