Bail to Kejriwal to campaign will end arrests of politicians as elections are year-round phenomenon in India, ED tells Supreme Court

ED cautions Supreme Court against granting interim bail to Arvind Kejriwal for election campaigning, citing equality and rule of law.

The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on Thursday cautioned the Supreme Court against granting interim bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the liquor policy case, saying that if “unscrupulous” politicians are given bail for campaigning, none of them can ever be arrested, as elections are an “all-year-round phenomenon” in India.

There were 123 elections across the country in the last five years alone, the ED said in a 44-page affidavit.

The affidavit coincided with an announcement made in open court by Justice Sanjiv Khanna, who heads the two-judge Bench which heard the Kejriwal case, that the court would pronounce its order on the question of interim bail to the Chief Minister on May 10. The case is listed as item 50 before Justices Khanna and Dipankar Datta on Friday.

Grant of interim bail to Mr. Kejriwal to campaign for the ongoing Lok Sabha election would be anathema to the rule of law and equality, and create a precedent which would permit “all unscrupulous politicians to commit crimes, avoid investigation under the garb of one election or the other, be it municipal election or panchayat elections or Assembly or general elections, and thereafter, upon being arrested, seek interim bail to campaign for one election or the other”, the ED said. In a federal structure, one election is as good as another, it noted.

Giving the Chief Minister interim bail would create two separate classes of people in the country. “The ordinary people who are bound by the rule of law and politicians who can seek exemption from laws with the hope of securing interim bail to campaign for elections,” the ED argued.

No political leader has ever been granted interim bail to campaign. A contesting candidate in custody is not granted bail for campaigning. Even the right to vote is curtailed while in judicial custody under the Representation of People Act. Mr. Kejriwal, who was arrested on March 21, was remanded to judicial custody for the sixth time till May 20.

An interim bail for Mr. Kejriwal to canvas votes for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as a “star campaigner” would incentivise every criminal to be a politician and be in campaign mode throughout the year while committing rampant offences, the ED said. Politicians can claim no special status higher than that of an ordinary citizen; they are as much liable to be arrested and detained for committing offences as any ordinary person, the Central agency reasoned.