New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its order on the issue of whether to release Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on interim bail or not in view of the ongoing general elections and enabling him to participate in campaigning in Delhi and Punjab.

A bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta made it clear during the hearing that they were considering the issue of Interim bail only because elections were going on and elections presented an exceptional circumstance.

The court, while speaking its mind on the issue of interim bail, said that some conditions may be imposed on him.

“Suppose we give interim Bail on grounds of elections and right to participate in it, we do not want you to perform your official duties as it will lead to conflict and then if you while on bail perform your official duties it can have cascading effect,” the bench said.

Earlier during the day, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) opposed grant of interim bail to Kejriwal, raising four issues listed below.

1) There cannott be a difference between a common man and politicians while granting interim bail. Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta said, “There cannot be two classes of people, one common man and other the politicians who get preferential treatment. If bail is granted to Kejriwal, a wrong message will go in the society.”

2) Merely he (Kejriwal) is running short of time, its not a correct request to make, we must get a fair chance to point out his role etc to the court.

3) The allegations against kejriwal show his involvement in the liquor scam and he must not be given bail.

4) Kejriwal should approach the trail court for bail.

However, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing Kejriwal, impressed on the court that democracy was the part of the basic structure of the Constitution and elections again were an important component of democracy and lastly there has to be a level playing field that has to be afforded during elections to all as democracy is at stake.

On the issue of Kejriwal not attending to any official work while on bail, Singhvi remarked that if such a thing happens all work of Delhi government will come to a standstill and would be an unnecessary fetter on Kejriwal.