SC asks Delhi HC to decide ex-AAP minister Satyendar Jain's bail without unnecessary adjournment

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Delhi High Court to decide the bail plea by former Delhi Minister and senior AAP leader Satyender Kumar Jain without unnecessarily adjourning it.

A bench of Justices Manoj Misra and S V N Bhatti told the High Court to take a call on the matter on July 9, the next date of hearing.

The court, however, rejected Jain's plea to tag his instant plea along with similar matter pending before it the question whether default bail can be denied on filing of incomplete charge sheet.

Senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for Jain, submitted the issue before the court over whether the question on default bail can be deferred by the court on filing of incomplete charge sheet. Since the similar and identical issue was pending before this court, Jain's plea should also be tagged along with it.

He contended the High Court could not have given six weeks adjournment in Jain's case. The bench, however, said since such an issue was pending before a three-judge bench, it cannot take a call on this.

"We are sitting in a combination of two judges. We cannot take a call on the three judges bench case. This is just a one line order to list on July 9," the bench said.

"The facts in the instant case have yet not been decided. The High Court is yet to decide on merits. If the High Court rejects the plea, then the Supreme Court is the remedy," the bench added.

Singhvi again questioned six weeks adjournment. He pointed out it has been held by the Supreme Court that such cases have to be dealt within a period of one week.

"Let the High Court decide and then we will take a call," the bench said.

In its order, the bench said, "We have heard the counsel for the petitioner...he submits that the question of law which would govern the decision of High Court is engaging attention of this court and thus this matter be tagged with Supreme Court case. We do not find merit in that submission as High Court is yet to take a call and if HC takes a decision then a remedy is before Supreme Court. It goes without saying that bail prayers are not unnecessarily adjourned and thus we hope and pray that HC takes a call in the matter when it is listed next."

The court was hearing a plea by Jain challenging the Delhi High Court's order of May 28 which adjourned his default bail plea to July 09, 2024 while issuing notice.

On May 30, 2022, the Enforcement Directorate had arrested the AAP leader on the charge of laundering money through companies allegedly linked to him. In May, 2023 the apex court granted interim bail to Jain for six weeks for spinal surgery. The apex court extended the interim bail by five weeks on July 24, 2023 after that the court had extended Jain’s interim bail several times.

On March 18, 2024, the Supreme Court had rejected an appeal by Jain against dismissal of his bail plea. The court had ordered him to surrender forthwith after cancelling his medical bail, holding that there was prima facie sufficient materials that he was guilty of offences in a money laundering case.

The court had then upheld the Delhi High Court's judgment of April 6, 2022, which "after discussing the material on record had prima facie found the appellants guilty of the alleged offences under the PMLA, which judgment does not suffer from any illegality or infirmity."