Delhi High Court to appoint 3 senior counsel to assist after Arvind Kejriwal boycott of judge in Excise Policy case

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday said that it would appoint three Senior Advocates as amici curiae to assist it in the case challenging the discharge of former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other accused in the Delhi Excise Policy case.

Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma passed the direction after Kejriwal and two other Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders – Manish Sisodia and Durgesh Pathak - decided to boycott the proceedings before her in the revision plea filed by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

"I will appoint a senior advocate as amicus for 8, 18 and 19. So it will be appropriate that I hear CBI arguments once the amicus is appointed," the judge said.

The Court said that the amici will be appointed on Friday, the next date of hearing.

Kejriwal, Sisodia and Pathak had earlier sought the judge's recusal. However, Justice Sharma rejected their application on April 20.

The judge had said that a politician cannot be allowed to sow seeds of mistrust and that the application seeking her recusal amounted to putting the judiciary on trial.

The case arose in 2022, when the CBI registered a First Information Report (FIR) alleging that the Delhi Excise Policy of 2021-22 was manipulated to facilitate monopolisation and cartelisation of liquor trade in Delhi.

The probe agency said that AAP and its leaders received kickbacks from liquor manufacturers due to manipulation of the policy. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) also later registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in the matter.

What followed was a series of arrests of opposition leaders, criticised by some quarters as being politically motivated.

It was alleged that a criminal conspiracy was hatched by AAP leaders, including Sisodia and Kejriwal and other unidentified and unnamed private persons/entities at the stage of the policy’s formulation.

The conspiracy, it was alleged, involved loopholes “intentionally” left or created in the policy. These loopholes were allegedly meant to favour some liquor licensees and conspirators post the tender process, it was claimed.

A trial court on February 27 this year discharged Kejriwal and 22 other accused from the case. The CBI challenged the order and the same is currently being heard by Justice Sharma.

On March 9, Justice Sharma issued notice in the matter and stayed the trial court direction for department proceedings against the CBI officer who investigated the case. Justice Sharma also gave a prima facie finding that some of the observations made by the trial court in its order were erroneous. She further directed the trial court to defer the PMLA proceedings, which are based on the CBI's case.

Kejriwal and other accused -Sisodia, Pathak, Vijay Nair, Arun Pillai and Chanpreet Singh Rayat - subsequently filed applications for Justice Sharma's recusal.

The same was rejected by Justice Sharma, who decided that she would continue hearing the matter. Subsequently, Kejriwal, Sisodia and Pathak decided to boycott the proceedings before Justice Sharma.