Junking Hemant Soren’s plea, Supreme Court directs him to High Court

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NEW DELHI: In a setback to former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, the Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain his petition challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case and asked him to go back to the state high court where his petition is already pending.

“We are not inclined to entertain the petition under Article 32. We leave it open to the petitioner to approach the jurisdictional high court under Article 226,” a three-judge special Bench led by Justice Sanjiv Khanna told senior counsel Kapil Sibal, who represented Soren.

Justice Khanna said it would be open to the petitioner to request the high court to expeditiously decide the matter. As Sibal urged the SC to direct the HC to decide the matter expeditiously, Justice Khanna said, “We will not control a constitutional court.”

Meanwhile, a Special PMLA Court in Ranchi, on Friday remanded Soren to five-day ED custody in a money laundering case.