The Jharkhand High Court on Wednesday granted relief to Chief Minister Hemant Soren by exempting him from making a personal appearance before the MP-MLA Court in a case filed by the Enforcement Directorate regarding an alleged land scam.
Soren had challenged the order passed by the MP-MLA Court seeking his personal appearance.
The court of Justice Anil Kumar Choudhary, while hearing a petition filed by Soren, disposed of the plea by observing that he will not have to appear in person in the case and can be represented by his counsel.
The federal agency had filed a complaint case against Soren after he had refused to appear before the office of the ED through summonses issued to him.
On November 25, the high court vacated a stay on the chief minister's appearance before the MP-MLA Court at Ranchi in a case filed by the ED.
The high court was hearing a petition filed by Soren, challenging an order of personal appearance issued by the MP-MLA court special judge.
The Enforcement Directorate had issued summonses to Soren to appear before its office, which he never complied with.
The complainant, Devraj Jha, assistant director of ED, filed the complaint stating that as many as 10 summonses were issued to Soren to appear before the authority in connection with his involvement in the alleged land scam.
Soren had only appeared in response to two summonses, while the others were ignored, Jha had said.
Thereafter, the ED filed a complaint petition before the special judge of the MP-MLA court in 2024.
In the course of the hearing of the complaint petition filed by the Enforcement Directorate, the special judge ordered Soren to appear in person before the MP-MLA court in Ranchi.
Soren then moved a criminal miscellaneous petition before the Jharkhand High Court challenging the order of the MP-MLA Court directing his personal appearance.
The high court had issued notices to the ED to appear in the case, and in December 2024, clamped a stay on the operation of the order of the lower court seeking Soren's appearance.
By virtue of the order of the high court passed in December last year, Soren's appearance before the MP-MLA Court was kept in abeyance.
The state government, while appearing in the case in November, sought an adjournment before the high court.
The court, while granting an adjournment to the government, vacated the stay order granted earlier in the case to Soren.
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