HC issues notice in response to Kejriwal’s plea for more meetings with lawyers

The Delhi high court on Monday issued a notice in response to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s plea seeking additional meetings with his lawyers via video conferencing to discuss litigations pending against him throughout the country.

A bench of Justice Neena Bansal Krishna directed the Tihar jail and Enforcement Directorate (ED) to file their response in five days while listing the matter for hearing on July 15.

Kejriwal moved the high court against a city court’s April 10 and July 1 orders rejecting his plea for additional meetings with his lawyers. He is allowed two meetings with his lawyer in a week.

In its July 1 order, the city court said Kejriwal’s legal team failed to convince it as to how Kejriwal was entitled to additional meetings on the grounds that it rejected earlier. On April 10, the court dismissed Kejriwal’s plea seeking five additional meetings with his lawyers.

In his plea before the high court, Kejriwal cited cases pending against him in different states and said additional meetings were thus required to enable him to discuss the way forward. It added proper legal representation in all cases is his fundamental right.

During the hearing on Monday, Kejriwal, represented through senior advocate Ramesh Gupta, urged the court to issue a notice in his plea. He said 35 cases were pending against him and he thus needed additional meetings.

Tihar Jail authorities, appearing through advocate Abhijit Shankar, and the ED, represented by advocate Zoheb Hossain, accepted the notice and sought time to file their responses.

Kejriwal has been in custody since March 21 following his arrest by ED, apart from a 21-day interim bail in May granted by the Supreme Court for Lok Sabha election campaigning, over allegations of irregularities in Delhi’s now-scrapped excise policy of 2021-22.