The Supreme Court dismissed a plea on Monday that sought the removal of Arvind Kejriwal as the Delhi Chief Minister following his arrest in a money laundering case.
The court held that the petitioner had no legal right to seek Kejriwal's ouster.
The bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta clarified that resignation in such circumstances is a matter of propriety, but there is no legal right to demand Kejriwal's removal as the Chief Minister after his arrest.
"What is the legal right? On propriety, you may certainly have something to say, but there is no legal right. It's up to the LG (Lieutenant Governor) if he wants to take action. We are not inclined to entertain this (petition)," the bench told petitioner Kant Bhati's counsel.
While dismissing the appeal challenging the Delhi High Court's April 10 order, the bench said, "When the matter (Kejriwal's petition against arrest) was being heard, we had posed the same question to them. Ultimately, it is a matter of propriety and no legal right." It pointed out that the high court has dismissed several petitions on the issue.
On April 10, the high court had expressed its displeasure over repeated filing of petitions seeking Kejriwal's removal.
The court said once it had dealt with the issue and opined that it fell within the executive domain, there should not be any "repeat litigation" as it was not a "James Bond movie that will have sequels".
On March 28, the court dismissed another PIL for Kejriwal's removal, saying that while the petitioner had failed to show any legal bar that prohibited the arrested chief minister from holding office, there was also no scope for judicial interference in such cases as it was for the other organs of the State to consider the issue.
Another similar PIL was dismissed by the high court on April 4, saying it was Kejriwal's personal choice to continue as the chief minister and granted liberty to the petitioner to approach the lieutenant governor (LG).
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