The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition filed against Delhi High Court order refusing to direct removal of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal following his arrest in the Delhi Liquor Policy case by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
A bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta rejected the plea saying that it was not inclined to interfere with the Delhi High Court's verdict dismissing the plea to remove Kejriwal from Delhi CM post. "The LG can take a call if he wants," the court said.
The top court further said that petitioner who approached the top court against the Delhi High Court order was not the original petitioner before the High Court.
In April, the high court slammed the former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Sandeep Kumar for filing a petition seeking removal of Arvind Kejriwal from the post of Chief Minister of Delhi. The court imposed a cost of Rs 50,000 on Kumar for moving the plea despite previous court orders on the matter. The high court has dealt with atleast 4 such pleas.
The Delhi High Court bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora noted that this is the fourth litigant seeking such a relief. "We told you it is not a James bond film that will keep having sequels," the bench remarked.
The high court asked the petitioner's counsel to show one instance where a high court or the Supreme Court have removed a chief minister. The court further said that the petitioner is trying to drag the court into a political thicket.
The court further told Kumar that if he wants to make a political speech, he can go to a corner of the road and do that. The court further told the counsel appearing for Kumar that "It is because of people like your client that we are reduced to a joke."
The court had earlier said that it is for the Executive to decide and there is no legal bar on Kejriwal continuing as Chief Minister from judicial custody. In the last hearing the court said that it is Kejriwal's personal call if he wishes to continue on the post of chief minister, but sometimes personal interest must be subordinated to national interest.