The Election Commission of India (EC) on Monday sent a notice to Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren whom the BJP has accused of corruption for obtaining a mining lease while in power.

Sources said Soren has been asked to show cause by May 10 as to why the EC must not recommend his disqualification under section 9A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.

The BJP asked governor Ramesh Bais in February to dismiss Soren and have him prosecuted for corruption. Disqualifications fall under the ambit of the EC to whom Bais referred the matter in March.

Last month, the EC asked Jharkhand chief secretary Sukhdev Singh to submit all documents related to the lease. In reply to a PIL in the Jharkhand High Court last month, the state government said that the grant of a lease was a mistake and Soren had surrendered the same.

The EC’s former legal adviser, S.K. Mendiratta, told The Telegraph that the charge against Soren is unlikely to be judged as an office-of-profit, and the Supreme Court has ruled in 1964 that such mining leases don’t fall under 9A.

“To prove the office of profit charge they will first have to show what office is occupied by Soren by getting a mining lease,” he explained.

Mendiratta said: “A full bench held that a mining lease is not a contract under 9A that can lead to disqualification.”

A source said Soren is likely to cite the cases of C.V. K. Rao versus Dentu Bhaskara Rao (1964), Kartar Bhadana versus Hari Nalwa (2001), and Shrikant versus Vasantrao and Others (2006) to make his defence that, “Mining lease is not a business and is not a contract of supply of goods and does not amount execution of work undertaken by government.”

Soren’s father Shibu Soren came under the cloud for his Jharkhand Mukti Morcha supporting the formation of P. V. Narasimha Rao’s government in 1993 in lieu of money.

Soren senior couldn’t be tried for it as a court gave MPs immunity from the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The BJP has also accused Soren of granting his wife Kalpana an industrial plot in Ranchi, and have accused his brother Basant of illegal mining in Pakur. His sisterinlaw Sita Soren is facing trial for alleged bribery of MLAs in the 2012 Rajya Sabha polls.