Supreme Court's Tryst With Politicians' Bail In 2024

Among the many bail pleas the Supreme Court of India was called on to decide during 2024, a few were preferred by political leaders. These included - Aam Aadmi Party leaders Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh; BRS leader K Kavitha; former Tamil Nadu minister (and MLA) V Senthil Balaji; Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren; UP MLA Abbas Ansari; and former West Bengal Education Minister (and MLA) Partha Chatterjee.Decisions in most of these cases reflected the Court's heightened priority to preserve values of liberty and resolve against prolonged pre-trial detention. Let's take a look at each of them.Sanjay SinghAAP MP Sanjay Singh was arrested by ED in connection with the Delhi Liquor Policy 'scam' on October 4, 2023, following searches at his residence in Delhi. The agency alleged that an employee of businessman Dinesh Arora delivered Rs. 2 crores to Singh's house on two occasions.On April 2, a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna (now CJI), Dipankar Datta and PB Varale granted bail to Singh in the money laundering case related to the 'scam', following a concession by ED. When ED said it had no objection to grant of bail to Singh in "peculiar facts of the case", the Court ordered his release, clarifying that nothing was being expressed on merits.During the hearing, after observing that there were 9 exculpatory statements made by approver-Dinesh Arora and no money had been recovered from Singh, the Bench had asked ED whether further custody of Singh was required. Further, ASG SV Raju (appearing for ED) was asked to consider the implications of an order being passed in favor of Singh on merits, which would have attracted findings from the Court insofar as Section 45 PMLA was concerned.In this backdrop, ED gave a concession and Singh obtained bail.Hemant SorenJharkhand CM Hemant Soren was arrested on January 31, 2024 over money laundering charges in connection with an illegal mining case, as well as an alleged land scam in Ranchi. As per ED, approximately 8.5 acres of property in question constituted proceeds of crime and Soren was charged with unauthorized possession and usage.Prior to Lok Sabha Elections, 2024, Soren approached the Supreme Court for interim bail, but his plea was not considered. During the summer break, a vacation bench of the top Court refused to entertain his petition challenging ED arrest, orally remarking that he had not disclosed facts relating to the Special Court taking cognizance of the complaint filed by ED. The same led to the petition's withdrawal.Soon after, Soren approached the Jharkhand High Court for bail. The High Court held in his favor, observing that there was no evidence directly linking him to the possession of the land in question and ED's statements (that its intervention prevented illegal possession of the land) were ambiguous. The High Court further observed that in Soren's case, the twin conditions under Section 45 of PMLA were satisfied and thus he had to be released. It was also noted that in the numerous registers and revenue records recovered from accused-Bhanu Pratap Prasad's premises, Soren or his family members' names did not appear.Aggrieved by this order, ED approached the Supreme Court, claiming that the High Court's order was "illegal" and it could not have said that there was no prima facie evidence against Soren. On July 29, a bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan dismissed ED's plea, opining that the High Court's judgment was "very well reasoned."Manish SisodiaFormer Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia was arrested by CBI and ED in connection with the Delhi Liquor Policy 'scam' on February 26 and March 9, 2023 respectively.On August 9, 2024, a bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan granted him bail in both CBI and ED cases, taking note of his long pre-trial incarceration and the fact that the trial in the cases had not even commenced. The bench opined that Sisodia had been deprived of his right to speedy trial."We find that on account of long incarceration running around 17 months and trial having not been commenced, the appellant has been deprived of the right to speedy trial".The Court noted that there was "not even remotest possibility of trial being completed" in the near future considering there were 495 witnesses and thousands of documents running into lakhs of pages. To keep Sisodia under custody for an unlimited period of time in the hope of a speedy completion of trial would result in a grave violation of the fundamental right to personal liberty under Article 21, it said.Further, the Court opined that Sisodia had "deep roots in the society" and hence he was not a flight risk. Also, most of the evidence in the case is documentary in nature, which has already been collected; hence there is no possibility of tampering. As regards the apprehension of influencing or intimidating witnesses, the Court said that conditions could be imposed.In the judgement, the Court reiterated that prolonged incarceration and the delay in the trial should be ...

Supreme Court's Tryst With Politicians' Bail In 2024

Debby Jain

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