Ex-Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren Again Approaches Supreme Court Against ED Arrest, Cites HC's Delay In Pronouncing Verdict

Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has approached the Supreme Court with a fresh petition challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate, saying that the Jharkhand High Court has not yet delivered judgment on his petition despite concluding the arguments way back on February 28.

The JMM leader has been under custody since his arrest by the ED on January 31. On February 2, the Supreme Court had refused to entertain his previous petition challenging the ED arrest and asked him to approach the High Court instead.

Today, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Soren, mentioned the new petition before Justice Sanjiv Khanna for urgent listing. Sibal raised a grievance that because of the refusal of the High Court to deliver the judgment, Soren is in a deadlock situation, as he can "neither move forward nor backward" for legal remedies.

"Now we again went to the (high) court and said I can't move forward or backward, atleast please render the judgment. The judge said nothing. The man will be inside and elections will be over. Where do we go", Sibal said.

Justice Khanna told Sibal that an email request has to be sent to the Chief Justice's Secretariat for urgent listing. When Sibal said that he had already done so, Justice Khanna said that it was up to the CJI to decide the listing date. 

When Sibal requested for a listing on Friday, Khanna J said: "No, I'm not saying anything. The CJ Secretariat will give the dates".

The matter was mentioned before Justice Khanna (the second senior judge of the Supreme Court) as CJI DY Chandrachud was in a Constitution Bench hearing.