Delhi High Court has sought ED’s response on Arvind Kejriwal’s challenge to trial court summons in the excise policy case. The matter will be heard next on September 10.
New Delhi: On July 9, the Delhi High Court issued a notice to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) after Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal challenged the summons issued to him by the trial court in the Delhi excise policy money laundering case.
Justice Ravinder Dudeja of the High Court asked the ED to respond to Kejriwal’s petitions. The Court also said that the ED is allowed to mention its initial objections in its reply.
The matter has been listed for hearing again on September 10, 2025.
The summons were earlier issued by a magistrate court based on complaints filed by the ED.
These complaints were filed after Arvind Kejriwal did not appear before the agency despite being summoned multiple times under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with the Delhi excise policy case.
In his legal petitions before the Delhi High Court, Kejriwal has challenged the trial court’s summons as well as the September 17, 2024 order of the sessions court that had rejected his earlier challenge to those summons. He is arguing that both these orders are not legal and should be set aside.
The ED’s Special Counsel, Zoheb Hossain, raised an objection regarding the maintainability of the petition.
He argued that
“a plea was rejected on similar grounds earlier and a second revision petition cannot be entertained.”
This means that the ED believes that since a similar plea was dismissed earlier, the High Court should not entertain a fresh one on the same matter.
The case itself is based on the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy for the year 2021–22. The Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) are investigating allegations that the policy was deliberately structured to help certain private liquor vendors and lobbyists in exchange for money.
These kickbacks were allegedly used to fund the AAP’s election campaign in Goa.
Kejriwal was first arrested by the ED on March 21, 2025, in connection with this money laundering case. Later, in June, the CBI also arrested him for related charges.
However, the Supreme Court granted him interim bail in the ED case on July 12, and he was later granted bail in the CBI case on September 13.
The Delhi High Court’s notice and the upcoming hearing on September 10 mark an important development in the legal proceedings involving Arvind Kejriwal.
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As of now, the ED has been directed to file its reply, and the court will take up the matter again on the next hearing date.
The High Court clearly stated:
“The ED can state its preliminary objections in the affidavit.”
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