‘We expected some candour’: Indian Supreme Court rubbishes ex-CM Hemant Soren’s bail plea

The Supreme Court of India on Wednesday (May 22) rubbished a bail plea filed by former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren while accusing the Jharkhand Mukti Morchaleader of misleading the court. The apex court saidSoren'sbail plea was already under consideration by the trial court, animportantfact that Soren failed to mention in his petition.

Soren wanted relief to have the opportunity to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections, just like jailed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal hadbeen granted.

Notably, the trial court had already takencognisance of the complaint filed by the Enforcement Directorateon April 4in connection witha land scam-related case.

A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma told Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Soren:"We expected some candour from your client. He should have said that he had already applied for bail. That was not told to us in the course of arguments…You were pursuing parallel remedies…Why is it that in none of the petitions, despite being aware, you are not spelling it out that cognisance was taken on April 4, 2024…Your conduct leaves a lot to be desired…This is not the way you come before the court without disclosing material facts."

The court warned Sibal that it would write in its ruling that Soren had not approached the court with clean hands. However, Sibal then urged to withdraw the petition altogether, to which the court agreed.

Then, the court grilled Sibal for not mentioningimportantfactsrelated tothe case before the court.

"When did you get to know for the first time about the cognisance-taking order?”the court asked Sibal.

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“If you recall, I had put a question to you (when the SC heard the matter first and issued notice to ED)… What is the relief that you are seeking from the court? You said bail…Did your client not instruct you on the day we should notice that your bail petition before the special court is pending?”the court asked.

Sibal later said the confusion arose because of a misunderstanding.

“The client is in jail. We have never done that in our lives. Our intention is never to mislead the court. We have never done it,”Sibal said.

(With inputs from agencies)