SC to take up Sisodia’s bail condition relaxation petition on December 11

A bench of justices Bhushan R Gavai and KV Viswanathan passed the order on a mentioning made by senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi appearing for Sisodia

The Supreme Court will on Wednesday hear the petition filed by former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia seeking modification in his bail conditions requiring his appearance before the investigating officer (IO) twice a week.

Sisodia was granted bail on August 9 in the Delhi excise policy case. (HT photo)

A bench of justices Bhushan R Gavai and KV Viswanathan passed the order on a mentioning made by senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi appearing for Sisodia.

The senior lawyer told the court that notice on the plea seeking modification was issued on November 22 with a direction to be heard after two weeks.

Singhvi said that the two weeks period has since expired, and the matter was to come up on December 10. However, the list of cases for Tuesday does not mention the case prompting Sisodia’s legal team to mention the matter.

“It is a small matter and won’t take much time,” said Singhvi, following which the court posted the case for Wednesday.

Sisodia was granted bail on August 9 in the Delhi excise policy case.

The bail order required him to appear before the IO twice a week.

In his plea before the top court, Sisodia said that since the grant of bail, he appeared 60 times before the IO and has attended the trial on all 18 dates showing full compliance with the order passed by the top court.

“He is a respectable person. He has gone to the IO 60 times. Such a condition has not been imposed on other accused as the same ED gave its no objection. This must be heard at the earliest,” Singhvi had submitted to the court on the earlier date.

The top court order granting bail to Sisodia had said, “The appellant is directed to be released on bail in connection with ED Case and FIR registered against the appellant by the CBI on furnishing bail bonds for a sum of ₹10 lakh with two sureties of the like amount.”

He was further directed not to try to influence the witnesses or tamper with the evidence.

Sisodia was arrested in February 2023 for his alleged role in the conspiracy to introduce the now-scrapped excise policy to benefit private retailers by increasing commission rates from 5% to 12%.

The judgement noted the long incarceration of 17 months suffered by Sisodia and the right to speedy trial that was part of fundamental right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. It noted that going by the huge volume of evidence and the long list of witnesses, there was no probability of the trial commencing soon.

“In our view, keeping the appellant behind bars for an unlimited period of time in the hope of speedy completion of trial would deprive his fundamental right to liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution”, the bench said.

It further added that in a matter pertaining to the life and liberty of a citizen, a citizen cannot be made to run from pillar to post as the court held it would be “travesty of justice” to send Sisodia back to the trial court to seek bail.

The court further directed Sisodia to surrender his passport besides the condition not to tamper with evidence or influence witnesses.