By extending the date to hear his petition on October 13, Jharkhand High Court has given extra time to Hemant Soren, chief minister of Jharkhand.  

After examining the procedural document linked with Soren’s petition, the division bench comprising Justice Sanjay Kumar Mishra and Justice Ananda Sen directed his counsel and senior Congress leader P.Chitambaram  to erase shortcoming and fixed October 13 for its hearing. 

Chidambaram argued that Soren does not figure in any FIR filed by the ED. Nor he has been summoned as a witness or as an accused. Therefore, Chidambaram argued that ED’s summons were baseless.

This was challenged by Assistant Solicitor General SV Raju. Appearing for the ED through virtual mode he said that Soren’s case exhibits a predicate offence.He said that Soren’s petition had challenged Sections 50 and 63 of the ED and questioned the authority of the ED to issue summon which was justified by the SC in Vijay Madanlal Choudhary case.

Earlier, court had preferred not to hear his plea further.The counsel of Soren had sought time on the ground that a Delhi based counsel has to argue his petition on a hybrid mode.In response, the court had placed it for hearing on October 11. 

Notably, the Enforcement Directorate had issued five summons to Soren to interrogate him in connection with money laundering pertaining to the land scam. But Soren had not appeared before the ED even once and moved the Supreme Court.In view of the SC’s order, Soren had moved the HC.