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NEW DELHI: In his petition to Supreme Court, Jharkhand ex-CM Hemant Soren said on Thursday that the Centre started a witch-hunt against him after JMM-Congress alliance had defeated BJP in 2019 assembly elections.
CJI ordinarily refuses oral requests for listing, especially when he is heading a Constitution bench. At present, he is leading a seven-judge bench hearing the contentious issue relating to determination of Aligarh Muslim University’s denominational status.However, given the unprecedented nature of the case — arrest of a CM within an hour of his resignation — CJI Chandrachud agreed to delay sitting of the 7-judge bench and assembled a three-judge bench to hear senior advocates Kapil Sibal and A M Singhvi, who represented Soren.
Soren’s petition is listed before a special bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, M M Sundresh and Bela M Trivedi at 10.30 am on Friday.
Both Sibal and Singhvi argued that misuse of central agencies to hound political opponents and opposition leaders vitiated the polity of the country, and had a deleterious impact when the general elections were round the corner. “Can a CM be arrested in such a manner,” Sibal asked SC.
Solicitor general Tushar Mehta and ASG S V Raju pointed out that an identical petition was filed by Soren on Wednesday in Jharkhand HC, which had listed it for hearing on Thursday. Sibal said he had advised his client to withdraw the petition from HC. “The Supreme Court should decide this sensitive issue which has national ramifications,” Sibal said.
Soren was arrested at 10pm on Wednesday night by ED, within an hour of his resignation from CM’s post, even after his counsel Pragya Baghel wrote an email at 9 pm to ED and its assistant director Deovrat Jha, who effected the arrest, to await the outcome of Soren’s petition, listed for hearing before SC on Thursday.
In its arrest memo under PMLA, ED claimed Soren illegally acquired adjacently located 12 landed properties measuring over 8.5 acres and that it recovered Rs 36 lakh from his residences. Terming ED’s investigation as a “fishing and roving inquiry”, Soren sought quashing of summons issued by the agency on Jan 22 and 25 and his subsequent arrest.
CJI ordinarily refuses oral requests for listing, especially when he is heading a Constitution bench. At present, he is leading a seven-judge bench hearing the contentious issue relating to determination of Aligarh Muslim University’s denominational status.However, given the unprecedented nature of the case — arrest of a CM within an hour of his resignation — CJI Chandrachud agreed to delay sitting of the 7-judge bench and assembled a three-judge bench to hear senior advocates Kapil Sibal and A M Singhvi, who represented Soren.
Soren’s petition is listed before a special bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, M M Sundresh and Bela M Trivedi at 10.30 am on Friday.
Both Sibal and Singhvi argued that misuse of central agencies to hound political opponents and opposition leaders vitiated the polity of the country, and had a deleterious impact when the general elections were round the corner. “Can a CM be arrested in such a manner,” Sibal asked SC.
Solicitor general Tushar Mehta and ASG S V Raju pointed out that an identical petition was filed by Soren on Wednesday in Jharkhand HC, which had listed it for hearing on Thursday. Sibal said he had advised his client to withdraw the petition from HC. “The Supreme Court should decide this sensitive issue which has national ramifications,” Sibal said.
Soren was arrested at 10pm on Wednesday night by ED, within an hour of his resignation from CM’s post, even after his counsel Pragya Baghel wrote an email at 9 pm to ED and its assistant director Deovrat Jha, who effected the arrest, to await the outcome of Soren’s petition, listed for hearing before SC on Thursday.
In its arrest memo under PMLA, ED claimed Soren illegally acquired adjacently located 12 landed properties measuring over 8.5 acres and that it recovered Rs 36 lakh from his residences. Terming ED’s investigation as a “fishing and roving inquiry”, Soren sought quashing of summons issued by the agency on Jan 22 and 25 and his subsequent arrest.
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