The Jharkhand high court observed that the period of appearance in the ED summons has already lapsed and so, there was no merit in the case
RANCHI: The Jharkhand high court on Friday dismissed chief minister Hemant Soren’s petition that challenged the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summons to him.
harkhand chief minister Hemant Soren had petitioned the Jharkhand high court against the ED summons (PTI)
A division bench of chief justice Sanjaya Mishra and justice Anand Sen rejected the petition on the grounds that it was not maintainable for two reasons. “Firstly, because the plea seeking to set aside the ED summons had become infructuous as the life of the challenged summon has expired and there is no fresh summons pending. Secondly, on the issue of challenging section 50 and 63 of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the court observed that the Supreme Court has already decided on the issue (in a separate case),” said a senior counsel who was part of the proceedings.
Soren has skipped five summons issued by ED for questioning; the last one required him to appear before the federal agency on October 4.
The chief minister approached the high court on September 23, days after the Supreme Court refused to entertain his plea and directed Soren to approach the high court concerned.