The Delhi High Court on Thursday refused to entertain a PIL seeking the removal of Arvind Kejriwal as chief minister following his arrest in the excise policy-linked money laundering case, saying it was his “personal call”. A bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet P S Arora said it recently dismissed a similar PIL seeking Kejriwal’s removal from the chief minister’s post and thus, it cannot take a different view. “At times, personal interest has to be subordinate to national interest but that is his personal call. If he does not want to do that it is up to him. We are a court of law and have to go by the law. Your remedy does not lie here, it lies elsewhere. You go before the competent forum,” the bench said.

 “After some arguments, learned counsel for the petitioner states that in view of the observations made by this Court while disposing of the earlier writ petition being W.P.(C) No.4578/2024 Surjit Singh Yadav vs. Union of India and Ors., he has instructions to withdraw the present writ petition and file a representation with the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi. Accordingly, the present writ petition along with the applications is disposed of in accordance with the statement made by Mr. Barun Kumar Sinha, learned counsel for the petitioner. This Court clarifies that it has not commented on the merits of the proposed representation to be filed by the petitioner,” the court while dismissing the petition.

During the hearing, the petitioner’s counsel said a constitutional deadlock has been created following Kejriwal’s arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on the night of March 21. The court, however, made it clear that it cannot decide the matter and it is up to the LG or the President of India to take a call on the issue.

“How can we declare that the government is not functioning? The LG is fully competent to decide it. He (LG) does not need our guidance. We are no one to advise him. He will do whatever he has to in accordance with law,” the bench said.

The bench said it has recently dismissed a similar PIL seeking removal of Kejriwal from the post of chief minister and thus, it cannot take a different view.  As the court refused to interfere in the issue, petitioner Vishnu Gupta’s lawyer said he has instructions to withdraw the petition and that he will approach the Lieutenant Governor with his plea.