Heman Soren, the head of the JMM and a former chief minister, filed a plea opposing his detention by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in the land transaction case, but the Supreme Court on Friday declined to consider it. Instead, it asked Soren to take his case to the relevant High Court.
Justices Bela M. Trivedi, MM Sundresh, and Sanjiv Khanna’s bench stated that they are not inclined to consider the plea.
Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal argued on behalf of Soren that the case concerned an arrested Chief Minister. High courts are constitutional and accessible to all, according to the top court. The highest court ruled that if they grant permission for one individual, they must grant it for everyone.
Soren filed a case in the Supreme Court contesting the ED’s conduct, claiming that the investigation agency had behaved dishonestly and abused its authority to topple Jharkhand’s democratically elected government.
Soren described his custody as unlawful, dishonest, and without jurisdiction in his petition, which was submitted through attorney Pragya Baghel.
He sought to have his arrest and consequent detention declared as unwarranted, arbitrary, illegal, and violative of the fundamental rights of the petitioner guaranteed and protected under Article 21 of the Constitution.
He also urged the apex court to direct the respondent agency to, forthwith, set the petitioner free. Soren, in the petition, was urged to immediately release him from custody.
“The Enforcement Directorate is brazenly acting under the dictates of the Central Government and hounding the petitioner to destabilise a democratically elected government headed by the petitioner, who is the Chief Minister of the State of Jharkhand,” Hemant Soren said in the petition.
The JMM leader told the court that he mentioned his petition to the ED through an email dated January 31.
“Even the petitioner himself intimated the same to the officer of respondent no. 2 (ED). It was requested that Respondent No. 2 should await the outcome of the proceedings before the Supreme Court of India,” the JMM leader said.
“Despite that officer of Respondent No. 2, led by one Devrat Jha Assistant Director with the deliberate intent to make the present Writ Petition infructuous, has taken the Petitioner in its illegal custody from the precinct of the Governor House, where the Petitioner had gone to tender his resignation as the Chief Minister along with his MLA’s and allies who are in clear majority. The custody of the petitioner is illegal, malafide, and without jurisdiction,” Soren stated in his plea.
Soren challenged the ED’s summons dated January 22, 2024, and January 25, 2024, purportedly issued under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, as illegal, null, and void, and accordingly quash the impugned summons and all steps taken and proceedings emanating therefrom.
