Kolkata, Apr 6 (IANS): The Delhi High Court is scheduled to hear West Bengal Law Minister Moloy Ghatak's plea challenging the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summons asking him to appear at its headquarters in New Delhi in connection with the coal scam.

The sources said that the central agency counsel too is ready with counter-arguments on why its has become necessary to summon and question the state law minister at its headquarters in the national capital.

In his plea, Ghatak has alleged that even after his statements have been recorded by the ED, he is being summoned to New Delhi just to "harass" him.

Last month, the ED summoned Ghatak to appear at its headquarters in New Delhi and fixed March 29 as the date of his appearance. The central agency also summoned the minister's personal assistant to the national capital on March 23. However, neither of them turned up.

This was not the first time that Ghatak has been summoned by the ED in connection with the coal scam. However, he skipped the summons every time.

In September last year, the ED sleuths conducted raid and search operations at a number of residences of Ghatak and his relatives both at Asansol in West Burdwan district as well as in Kolkata. The minister also faced marathon questioning at that point of time.

Since then, the ED issued formal summons to him a number of times to be present at the agency's New Delhi office several times, but he skipped the summons each time.