Lagatar24 Desk
Mumbai, Oct 25: An extension of the stay on the decision granting bail to the former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh in a corruption case was rejected on Tuesday by a vacation bench of the Bombay High Court.
On December 12, 2022, Deshmukh received bail in the corruption case from Justice MS Karnik.
But he had also mentioned that the ruling wouldn’t take effect for another 10 days to give the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) time to appeal the decision. The aforementioned 10-day period was set to expire on December 21.
But on December 21, the High Court prolonged the stay till today, December 27, in response to a motion from the CBI. The CBI today requested a further extension of stay today but the same was not allowed.
Justice Karnik recorded in the order that “no further request of extension under any circumstances will be entertained”.
The vacation court of single-judge Justice SG Chapalgaonkar refused to grant any further extension relying on the direction given by Justice Karnik.
“How can a vacation court over ride regular court order? Request cannot be entertained. Interim application is rejected,” the vacation judge held.
Even though an appeal contesting the bail ruling has been filed in the Supreme Court, attorney Shreeram Shirsat representing the agency claimed that they have been unable to get it scheduled for an urgent hearing.
If not for three days, he asked for at least a one-day extension. Deshmukh’s attorney, Aniket Nikam, spoke against granting any relief. He drew attention to the clarifying instructions in Justice Karnik’s ruling and stated that the agency was requesting relief from the High Court since it had been unable to convince the Supreme Court of the urgency.
Deshmukh is the subject of two investigations stemming from the same allegation: one by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for the offence of money laundering and the other by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for the offence of corruption.
On October 4, the High Court granted him bail in the matter involving money laundering. His release on bail in the corruption case was mandated by the High Court on December 12.
The Enforcement Directorate’s appeal, which contested the bail that had been granted in the money laundering case, was already dismissed by the Supreme Court. Deshmukh will be released from prison after posting bail bonds in each case if the CBI is unable to obtain relief from the supreme court in the corruption case.
