Excise Policy Case: Delhi Dy CM Manish Sisodia Granted Bail

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in cases related to the Delhi excise police case.

The court granted regular bail to Sisodia in cases probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection to the now-scrapped excise policy. Sisodia will walk out of jail after 17 months.

The Court allowed the bail applications filed by Sisodia in both the CBI and ED cases considering the delay in commencing the trial in the liquor policy case.

“We find that on account of long incarceration running around 17 months and trial having not been commenced, the appellant has been deprived of the right to speedy trial…,” the Court observed. Reference was made to the recent precedents which held that investigating agencies cannot oppose bail citing the seriousness of the offence if they cannot ensure a speedy trial.

The Court noted that there is no remotest possibility of trial being completed in the near future considering that there are over 400 witnesses and thousands of documents. To keep Sisodia under custody in such a scenario would result in grave violation of the fundamental right to personal liberty, LiveLaw reported.

While the Court held that there was no error on the part of the trial court and the High Court regarding the matter’s merits, it added that they erred in not considering the aspect of delay in trial. The Court said that the trial court and the Delhi High Court should not have ignored the observations in the October 2023 judgment of the Supreme Court that prolonged incarceration and the delay in trial should be read into Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

A bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan, which reserved the judgment on August 6, disagreed with the findings of the trial court and the High Court that the delay in trial was attributable to Sisodia. Justice Gavai, while pronouncing the judgment, stated that Sisodia cannot be faulted for filing applications for inspection of the documents – including the unrelied documents of the prosecution- as they are necessary for ensuring a fair trial.