Excise Policy: Delhi High Court Grants Final Opportunity To Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia To Respond To CBI's Plea Against Discharge

The Delhi High Court on Thursday granted one final and last opportunity to AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal and party leaders Manish Sisodia and Durgesh Pathak to file their responses in the plea filed by  Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) challenging their discharge in the excise policy corruption case.

Justice Manoj Jain noted that the three politicians have not yet filed their responses, as per the report received from the Registry.

“Though opportunities in this regard have been granted to them earlier on several occasions, in the interest of justice, one last and final opportunity is granted to file reply, if any, within two weeks, with advance copy to the opposite side,” the Court said.

SGI Tushar Mehta appeared for CBI, along with ASGs SV Raju and DP Singh. However, none of the respondents were represented today as lawyers were abstaining from work.

The Court listed the matter for August 17 and 18 for commencing submissions on behalf of CBI at 2:30 PM.

Justice Jain said that once the submissions from the agency's side are concluded, time schedule will be fixed for addressing arguments from all the respondents.

“This Court expects that the schedule fixed shall be scrupulously adhered to, to ensure that there is no further delay in the matter,” the Court said, while granting permission to all the sides to file brief written submissions in the matter.

Interim orders to continue, the Court said.

The court has also listed ED's plea seeking expunging of certain adverse observations made by the trial court while discharging all in the excise policy case, along with CBI's plea. 

Earlier, the Court had issued fresh notices to Kejriwal, Sisodia and Durgesh Pathak regarding transfer of the case to another bench. This, as the trio had boycotted the hearing before Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma.

The matter was transferred to Justice Jain, after Justice Sharma initiated contempt proceedings against Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, Vinay Mishra, Durgesh Pathak and Saurabh Bharadwaj. She had earlier rejected the recusal applications filed by Kejriwal and others.

A division bench has issued notices to Kejriwal and other AAP leaders in the contempt proceedings. Thereafter, last week the court had listed a separate contempt plea against Kejriwal, Bharadwaj, AAP leader Gopal Rai and journalist Saurav Das along with suo-motu contempt plea and also issued notice to Rai and Das. 

On February 27, the trial court discharged all the 23 accused persons in the case, including political leaders Kejriwal, Sisodia and K Kavitha. The trial court had also severely criticised the CBI's investigation in the case.

It may be noted that the case had become politically controversial, as Kejriwal was arrested and remanded to the custody amidst the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He was later granted bail by the Supreme Court after 156 days of custody. AAP leader Manish Sisodia also spent 530 days in custody in the case.

The CBI's revision against the trial court's order was heard by Justice Sharma, who on March 9, prima facie observed that the trial court's observations were erroneous.

Later, Kejriwal and some other accused, including Sisodia, filed applications seeking recusal of Justice Sharma on ground of apprehension of bias. Justice Sharma, dismissed the recusal applications and decided to hear the matter herself.

Thereafter, Kejriwal and Sisodia wrote to Justice Sharma stating that they are boycotting the hearing before her and will not appear, either in person or through a counsel.

Case Title: CBI v. Kuldeep Singh & Ors

Case no: CRL.REV.P.-134/2026