The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a plea filed by Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief Hemant Soren, challenging his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on money laundering allegations minutes after he resigned as chief minister of the state on Wednesday.

Asking Soren to rather approach the high court concerned, the top court also declined to set down a deadline for the Jharkhand high court to hear and decide his petition that seeks his arrest be declared unconstitutional.

“Why haven’t you gone to the high court? Why have you come here directly? If we permit in one case for somebody to come here directly, we will have to permit everyone. After all, a high court is also a constitutional court,” a bench, led by justice Sanjiv Khanna asked the lawyers representing Soren.

Senior counsel Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the JMM leader, pressed that the facts of the matter required the top court to step in.

“We are dealing with a chief minister who has been arrested in such a manner. Please, see the evidence. This is not fair,” submitted Sibal, adding it was an appropriate case for the Supreme Court to exercise its discretion.

But the bench, which also comprised justices MM Sundresh and Bela M Trivedi, replied that all courts are open to everybody and that the high court is equally competent to grant the relief Soren wanted.

“There is an earlier order of this court by a bench of which my sister (justice Trivedi) was a part, asking you to go to the high court. Move the high court… From your amendment application, it appears that he has been arrested… Move the high court because the issue is different now. You came here challenging the summons (by ED) but now you are challenging your arrest,” it said.

Responding, Sibal tried to distinguish between the two cases.

“In the other case, constitutionality of the PMLA provision was challenged. Here, it is not. Look at the order of arrest in this case. Such an order cannot be passed by any reasonable person,” he argued.

But the bench remained indisposed.

“The fact of the matter is that the high court is also a constitutional court. Please, go to the high court. We will have to follow it consistently. I have been following it consistently and my brother and sister have been following it consistently,” it emphasised.

At this point, Singhvi came in to persuade the bench that the Supreme Court has concurrent jurisdiction in these cases and that there was no legal necessity for his client to move the high court at first instance if the apex court deemed it a suitable case to exercise its discretion.

“Further, this case has laid down the law that there is a difference between power to arrest and necessity to do so. There has to be some concrete reasons to make arrest,” added the senior counsel.

The bench, however, said that Soren must approach the high court first.

“We are not inclined to entertain this petition under Article 32 (writ jurisdiction of the Supreme Court) and leave it open to the petitioner to move the high court under Article 226 (writ jurisdiction of a high court. We have been informed that the petitioner has already preferred a writ petition before the Jharkhand high court where it is still pending,” the court recorded in its order.

The order further noted that an older petition by Soren was disposed off by the top court while granting him the same liberty of moving the high court.

“It will also be open to him to ask the high court for expeditious listing and disposal of the case,” recorded the bench.

At this juncture, Sibal requested the bench to indicate a timeline for the high court to take up and decide Soren’s petition, but the court declined the plea.

“When you press for it, they will certainly hear you out, but we are not going to control the high court… in all cases, we only ask high courts to decide expeditiously,” it said.

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On Thursday, the Supreme Court had agreed to hear Soren’s plea after his legal team sought an urgent hearing, arguing it is a case that will seriously impact the polity in India, requiring the highest court of the land to step in.

At the time, ED, represented through solicitor general Tushar Mehta and additional solicitor general SV Raju, opposed Soren’s plea, pointing out that the former CM has already moved the Jharkhand high court against his arrest.

Soren had filed a petition in the top court on Wednesday evening, before he was arrested.

In the plea, he sought protection from arrest on the grounds that ED’s actions were illegal and vitiated by political considerations.

Moving a fresh application in the petition mentioned above, Soren on Thursday urged the bench to declare his arrest unconstitutional for being a brazen abuse of power by ED.

“The petitioner was taken in illegal custody by ED from the premises of the Governor House. The arrest of the petitioner is illegal and malafide and without jurisdiction. The impugned action of ED is at the behest of the central government to topple the democratically elected government in the state of Jharkhand,” said Soren’s plea.

The JMM chief alleged that the federal agency is trying to make a fishing and roving enquiry for the purpose of political gains at the dictates of the central government.

Seeking his release, Soren claimed that there was no predicate (foundational) offence in the case that could empower ED to register a separate case and therefore, the entire money laundering probe was without jurisdiction.

ED has claimed that it has evidence that the JMM chief is the key beneficiary in alleged land related irregularities in Ranchi, where a network of brokers and businessmen were allegedly working over the years to create fake deeds of landed parcels by forging records in the registrar offices and further selling them off.

Anticipating the then sitting CM’s arrest, the state’s ruling alliance on Wednesday evening picked trusted aide and sitting minister Champai Soren as its next leader and said he enjoyed a comfortable majority.

On a tense day in Ranchi, with prohibitory orders clamped across large swathes of the state capital, Soren’s questioning began on Wednesday at 1:15pm at his residence, with ruling party legislators also on the premises. The questioning lasted for seven hours.

In the span of a dramatic few hours on Wednesday evening, Soren drove to Raj Bhavan and resigned even as 47 lawmakers backing the government followed him in three buses to meet Governor CP Radhakrishnan.

At around 10pm, Soren returned to his residence and then was taken to ED’s Ranchi office, where the 48-year-old leader was arrested in connection with the agency’s probe into the alleged land case.

Soren and the JMM have repeatedly denied the allegations and called them politically motivated, saying that the details of his assets are public.

Raj Bhavan later released a photo of Soren submitting his resignation to the governor, accompanied by Champai Soren, Left lawmaker Vinod Singh, Congress leader Pradeep Yadav, minister Alamgir Alam, and Rashtriya Janata Dal legislator Satyanand Bhokta.

“We have 47 MLAs, and we should be allowed to form the government. The governor said that he will check our papers and call us,” said Alam on Wednesday.

In the 81-member assembly, the ruling alliance that includes the JMM, Congress, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist) has 48 seats while the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has 32. One seat is vacant.

Soren is the first former CM arrested by ED.

The trouble began for him in August last year when ED sought to question him.

The leader did not show up and skipped as many as six summons issued one after the other, before finally agreeing to being questioned on January 20 this year.

Dramatic scenes unfolded in Delhi and Ranchi over the last three days, after ED swooped in on Soren’s residence at Shanti Niketan in the national Capital and even sent a team to the airport but failed to locate him.

Sleuths were stationed there till at least 10pm on Monday and allegedly seized about ₹36 lakh in cash from his Delhi residence, a BMW SUV, and some documents.

Soren later said none of this belonged to him and registered a case against ED.

The developments prompted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to allege that Soren was absconding in fear.

But Soren – who landed in Delhi on Friday and was expected to fly out in a chartered plane – drove 1,300km to Ranchi overnight and showed up in the city on Tuesday.

A Kolkata based businessman, Amit Kumar Agarwal, arrested by ED on June 7 last year, is key to Soren’s arrest as he is suspected to be the handler of tainted funds of several politicians, including the former Jharkhand CM, as alleged in a petition filed in the Jharkhand high court in 2021 by a lawyer, Rajeev Kumar.

ED has already filed a charge sheet in the alleged land case on June 12, 2023, naming Amit Agarwal, arrested Indian Administrative Officer (IAS) Chhavi Ranjan and eight other individuals – Dilip Kumar Ghosh (a close aide of Agarwal), Pradip Bagchi, Afshar Ali (alleged kingpin who created fake deeds on landed properties), Mohammad Saddam Hussain, Imtiaz Ahmad, Talha Khan, Faiyaz Ahmed, Bhanu Pratap Prasad – and three companies allegedly linked to Agarwal – Jagatbandhu Tea Estates Pvt Ltd, Rajesh Auto Merchandise Pvt Ltd and Aurora Studio Pvt Ltd.

Also Read:IAS Ranjan was principal conspirator in fraudulent sale of army land, ED tells Ranchi court

The alleged case pertains to usurping prime landed parcels, including a 4.55 acre defence land at Morabadi Mouza at Ranchi, and a land parcel of 7.6 acres at Hehal, Ranchi – both valued at over ₹74 crore at the current market price, besides several other land parcels – by the accused persons by making fake deeds using manufactured identities and falsifying original land records at Circle Offices and Registrar of Assurances (RoA), Kolkata and Circle Offices in Jharkhand, according to the ED charge sheet, which has been seen by HT.

Overall, ED has recovered documents related to at least 27 properties of which alleged fake deeds were created by the accused people.