New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday granted four weeks to Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and other respondents to file their responses to additional written submissions filed by the CBI in its revision petition challenging their discharge in the excise policy case.
Justice Manoj Jain heard the matter and fixed October 5 and 6 for arguments on the CBI's revision petition. The court passed the direction after the respondents sought time to respond to the CBI's written submissions, which, according to their counsel, contained additional grounds and material.
Senior Advocate Hariharan, appearing for Kejriwal, submitted that the CBI had recently filed written submissions running into 103 pages. He said certain grounds raised in the submissions were not part of the original revision petition. He also pointed out that two annexures had been filed along with the submissions and sought an opportunity to file a response.
The respondents also raised preliminary objections regarding the maintainability of the CBI's revision petition. Senior Advocate Vikram Chaudhri appeared for Durgesh Pathak and submitted that the court should first examine whether the CBI revision petition was properly constituted and maintainable in law. He said the objection was not merely about whether the petition could be entertained but whether it qualified as a revision petition at all. The Bench referred to an earlier order and observed that similarly placed respondents had already raised objections regarding maintainability and, with the consent of their counsel, the issue had been kept to be considered along with the arguments.
Chaudhri maintained that his objection concerned the very nature of the CBI revision petition and sought an opportunity to address the court on the issue. The CBI opposed the objections raised by the respondents.
The Bench said it had taken note of the preliminary objections but did not want to consider them in a piecemeal manner. "We've taken note of your objection, but we do not want to hear it in piecemeal," the court said. (ANI)
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