On Wednesday, April 5, 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that politicians cannot be held in higher regard than regular people. As a result, they are not entitled to special treatment under the law or immunity from arrest. The Supreme Court's bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and JB Pardiwal turned down a plea filed by 14 political parties alleging abuse of government agencies including the CBI and ED in exchange for future guidance. 

The bench stated that "politicians are citizens and can't enjoy any higher protection" urging offended politicians to seek appropriate remedies in court. Arguing for the political parties Abhishek Manu Singhvi failed to convince the Court and withdrew the petition filed by 14 political parties. 

“The difficulty in your petition is that you are trying to extrapolate the statistics into binding legal guidelines which effectively would apply. You are aware of the fact these statistics pertain only to politicians. At the same time, you are aware of the fact that the guidelines cannot apply only to politicians. Politicians do not have higher immunity.” - Supreme Court Bench

The bench stated that they are ready to take on "a single case or collection of cases" in which a political leader has been deliberately targeted in order to quiet their critics. The highest court disagreed with the argument that pre- and post-arrest standards should be created in instances that do not include bodily injury and call for sentences of no more than seven years. 

The petition was signed by the Congress and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Bharat Rashtra Samithi, Trinamool Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, Nationalist Congress Party, Shiv Sena (UBT), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Janata Dal-United, Communist Party of India, CPI-Marxist, Samajwadi Party, and J&K National Conference.