New Delhi/UNI: No relief for Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren with the Supreme Court on Monday refusing to entertain his petition and asking him to approach the Jharkhand High Court first to challenge the ED summons in connection with an alleged illegal mining case.

A two-judge Bench of the Apex Court, headed by Justice Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi, asked Mr Soren's lawyer, Mukul Rohatgi to approach the Jharkhand HC for relief first.

"Why don't you (Soren) go to high court? First you go there," Justice Bose said, and refused to entertain Soren's petition.

Soren in his petition filed in August before the Supreme Court last week said that there is an attempt to tarnish his image, and also the reputation of democratically elected govt and people of the state.

Soren sought quashing the issuance of summons against him in the money laundering case, besides other prayers.

The Jharkhand CM, had skipped twice the questioning of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the money laundering case.

The ED has been investigating two major money laundering cases in the state. The first case is related to illegal mining in the state. The agency questioned the CM in connection with the mining case on November 17 last year.

The second case pertains to an alleged land scam in the state capital. Thirteen individuals, including IAS officer C Ranjan, and two businessmen, have already been arrested in connection with the alleged land.

The ED on August 8, had summoned Mr Soren for questioning on August 14 at its zonal office in Ranchi to record his statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

Soren had, however, not appeared before the agency and termed it a "politically motivated" case.

Soren had questioned the summons and asked the agency to withdraw it.

The agency, however, rejected Soren's claims and issued a second summons to the CM, asking him to appear before it yesterday.