The Delhi High Court on Monday granted one month's interim bail to its former judge Shameet Mukherjee on medical grounds after May 7 when his police custody expires.
Mukherjee was arrested on April 30 in connection with the Delhi Development Authority land scam.
Justice R C Chopra passed this order after hearing arguments on behalf of the petitioner and the Central Bureau of Investigation for over one-and-a-half hours in a packed court room.
"His bail petition is rejected. However, he is granted interim bail for a period of one month from the date of expiry of the police remand on May 7. He would have to furnish a personal bond of Rs 50,000," the judge said in his order.
"We are happy with the relief our client has been given," said Dinesh Mathur who argued the case on behalf of Mukherjee.
Asked if the CBI would approach the Supreme Court against the order, Additional Solicitor General R N Trivedi said it was too early to say anything on this matter.
Earlier, Dinesh Mathur argued that the CBI has arrested Mukherjee on flimsy grounds.
The so-called copies of judgments recovered from accused Ashok Kapur and Dharam Vir Khattar was not a copy but merely a draft of the actual judgment.
"No case is made out against my client wherein the CBI could show that he has benefited monetarily. The case of Azad Singh vs CBI is pending before the division bench of the Delhi High Court and will come up for hearing on May 15."
"So where is the question of the judgment giving benefit to any party. The CBI only talks of Khattar providing wine and women, but that does not come under the Prevention of Corruption Act," Mathur said.
"Mukherjee has an ailing wife to look after, a son who studies in Kolkata and a daughter who studies in the 8th standard. We are pleading for granting of bail on medical grounds," he said.
Opposing bail, Trivedi said since this was a prestigious case, any order would have greater ramifications.
"The higher the status of the person involved in a case, the greater are his responsibilities. The remand of the accused finishes on May 7 and so he should be denied bail. We need to bring him face to face with other accused persons arrested in the case," he said.
The judge asked the CBI if it had enough evidence to link the judge to the other accused and whether he got any benefit for passing judgments favourable to Vinod Khatri, owner of a restaurant in Vasant Kunj in south Delhi.
To this, Trivedi offered to play the recorded conversations between Mukherjee and the accused in the judge's chamber.
