The Delhi High Court on Wednesday dismissed with ₹1 lakh cost a plea seeking appropriate arrangements for Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to run the Delhi government from jail and directions to news channels against airing stories that create “undue pressure” for the leader’s resignation.
Mr. Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 21 in a money laundering case linked to the now-withdrawn 2021-22 Delhi excise policy.
He has refused to resign following his arrest, with the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) accusing the agency of implicating him in a false case just to prevent him from canvassing in Lok Sabha poll.
The party has also contended that he won’t be resigning from his post and would be running the government from Tihar Jail, where he is currently lodged.
In the petition, advocate Shrikant Prasad sought that Mr. Kejriwal be allowed to hold interactions with Delhi Assembly members and Cabinet Ministers through videoconferencing so that he could run the government from jail.
A Bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet P.S. Arora said Mr. Kejriwal has already approached the Supreme Court against his arrest and “no orders were called for” with regard to providing him any facilities while in judicial custody.
To the petitioner’s demand that the media be barred from airing “sensational headlines” and Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva also stopped from building “undue pressure” for the CM’s resignation by issuing statements and holding protests, the court said it cannot gag the media or stop political rivals from making statements.
“Do we impose emergency? We impose censorship? We impose martial law? How do we gag the press, the political rivals?” the Bench asked.