In December 2021, the Supreme Court of India extended relief to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a case related to his alleged inflammatory speech during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The court granted Kejriwal protection from arrest in the case until the next hearing. The case pertains to a speech made by Kejriwal during a rally in Uttar Pradesh in which he allegedly made inflammatory remarks against a specific community. The speech was reportedly in violation of the Model Code of Conduct, which prohibits the use of language that is likely to incite communal tensions during election campaigns. In 2016, a local court in Uttar Pradesh issued a non-bailable warrant against Kejriwal in connection with the case. Kejriwal challenged the order in the Allahabad High Court, which granted him interim relief and stayed the arrest warrant. The case was later transferred to the Supreme Court. In December 2021, the Supreme Court extended the interim relief granted to Kejriwal and directed the Uttar Pradesh police not to take any coercive action against him until the next hearing. The court also issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government seeking its response to Kejriwal’s plea for quashing the FIR filed against him in the case.
Arvind Kejriwal, who is the Chief Minister of Delhi, has been embroiled in several legal battles over the years, including this case related to his alleged inflammatory speech during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
The case was filed against him by a local leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh, where Kejriwal had made the speech during the election campaign. In the speech, he had reportedly made references to the alleged communal riots that had taken place in the state in 2013.
Kejriwal has denied the allegations and claimed that the case is politically motivated. He had approached the Supreme Court seeking quashing of the FIR filed against him in the case.
The Supreme Court’s decision to extend relief to Kejriwal in the case comes at a time when he and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are gearing up for the upcoming assembly elections in Punjab and Goa. The party has been trying to expand its footprint beyond Delhi and has been focusing on issues such as healthcare, education, and anti-corruption in its campaigns.
