Jharkhand High Court Exempts CM Hemant Soren From Personal Appearance in ED Land Scam Case

The Jharkhand High Court on Wednesday provided relief to Chief Minister Hemant Soren by exempting him from personally appearing before the MP-MLA Court in a case filed by the Enforcement Directorate regarding an alleged land scam.

Soren had filed a petition challenging the MP-MLA Court's order that required his personal appearance in the case.

Justice Anil Kumar Choudhary, while hearing Soren's petition, disposed of the plea by ruling that the Chief Minister would not be required to appear in person and could instead be represented by his legal counsel.

The federal agency had initiated a complaint case against Soren after he failed to respond to multiple summonses issued by the ED requiring his appearance at their office.

Previously, on November 25, the high court had vacated a stay on the chief minister's appearance before the MP-MLA Court in Ranchi in the case filed by the ED.

The high court was considering a petition filed by Soren that challenged the personal appearance order issued by the MP-MLA court's special judge.

According to ED Assistant Director Devraj Jha, who filed the complaint, the agency had issued ten summonses to Soren requesting his appearance regarding his alleged involvement in the land scam.

Jha stated that Soren had responded to only two of these summonses, ignoring the remainder.

Subsequently, the ED filed a complaint petition before the special judge of the MP-MLA court in 2024.

During the hearing of this complaint petition, the special judge ordered Soren to appear in person before the MP-MLA court in Ranchi.

In response, Soren filed a criminal miscellaneous petition with the Jharkhand High Court challenging the MP-MLA Court's directive for his personal appearance.

The high court issued notices to the ED to appear in the case, and in December 2024, imposed a stay on the lower court's order requiring Soren's appearance.

As a result of the high court's December order, Soren's appearance before the MP-MLA Court was temporarily suspended.

In November, the state government sought an adjournment when appearing before the high court.

While granting this adjournment request, the court simultaneously vacated the stay order that had previously been granted to Soren in the case.