Supreme Court Relief For Arvind Kejriwal In UP Election Campaign Speech Case

The Supreme Court on Friday in an interim order stayed the trial proceedings against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a case registered against him in 2014 in Uttar Pradesh during the election campaign.

A bench of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna stayed the trial proceedings and also issued notice on Kejriwal's petition. The matter will be heard after five weeks.

During the election campaign in 2014, Kejriwal had allegedly said that "those who believe in 'Khuda' won't be pardoned by 'Khuda' if they vote for BJP".

Kejriwal approached the Supreme Court challenging the Allahabad High Court order which rejected his plea for discharge from the case.

The High Court while dismissing Kejriwal's plea had said, "It appeared that Kejriwal is threatening the voters in the name of 'Khuda' knowing fully well that if he uses the term 'Khuda', some set of voters belonging to different religions might have severely been influenced."

Earlier, Sultanpur Court had dismissed his discharge application.

During the case hearing today, the bench expressed disapproval of the statement made by Kejriwal and said, "Why are you bringing God? In a secular country, leave God alone. God doesn't need anyone's protection, he can take care of himself."

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi appearing for Arvind Kejriwal said, "Sometimes during political campaigning, unintentional things are said."

"There are no allegations of any law and order problems or communal disharmony happening after the speech," Singhvi added.

Singhvi while urging that the proceedings against Kejriwal be stayed said, "Now that I am the Chief Minister, I will be called to UP every time. The discharge has been dismissed, the whole object is to call me and arrest me."

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)