India, April 7 -- The Delhi High Court on Monday ruled that statements or assurances made by a chief minister during a press conference do not become legally enforceable unless they are formalised in a legally enforceable document.

A division bench comprising Justices C. Hari Shankar and Om Prakash Shukla thus overturned single judge's July 2021 order in which it held that former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's press statement assuring that his government would pay the rent on behalf of poor tenants who were unable to do so owing to Covid-19, was legally enforceable and directed the government to take a call in six weeks.

In its 50-page judgment, the bench termed the single judge's ruling "misconceived", observing that a writ of ...