In a major relief to Jharkhand Chief Minister Heman Soren, the Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the Directorate of Enforcement’s (ED) plea challenging the state high court order granting bail to the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha chief accused in an alleged money laundering case linking him to an alleged illegal transfer of land.
Refusing to interfere with the well-reasoned judgment of the Jharkhand High Court, a bench of Justice B R Gavai and Justice K V Viswanathan said, “We don’t want to observe anything, if we observe, you will be in difficulty. The high court judgment is very well reasoned.”
Justice Gavai also referred to a recent speech by the Chief Justice of India Justice D Y Chandrachud at Bengaluru where he had said that trial courts play safe when it comes to granting bail.
The bench in its order said, “We are not inclined to interfere with the impugned order. We clarify that the observations made by the learned single judge are relating to the consideration of bail and the same would not influence the learned trial judge in trial or any other proceedings.”
“We are not inclined to interfere with the impugned order. However, we calcify that the trial court will conduct proceedings uninfluenced by the observations made by the High Court judge while granting basil.”
At the outset of the hearing, the bench made it clear that the order granting bail to Chief Minister Hemant Soren was well reasoned and they were not inclined to interfere with it and asked the Additional Solicitor General S V Raju to read certain paragraphs from the high court judgment.
The ED had moved the top court challenging the Jharkhand high court’s order granting bail to the chief minister and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha chief Hemant Soren in an alleged money laundering case relating to a land scam case.
Soren was arrested by the ED in January this year. He came out of Birsa Munda Jail on June 28 after being there for nearly five months
Soren had resigned as chief minister following his arrest. After the grant of bail by the high court, he was back in the saddle as chief minister. This was the third time that he was sworn in as chief minister.
After his arrest in January, Hemant Soren was succeeded by Champai Soren as chief minister.