Petitions seeking CBI, ED probe against Hemant Soren maintainable: Jharkhand HC
The Jharkhand high court will now proceed with hearings on the merit of the two petitions seeking probe by the central agencies against chief minister Hemant Soren.
RANCHI: The Jharkhand high court on Friday ruled that the two petitions seeking Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) inquiry against chief minister Hemant Soren in connection with the alleged irregularities in the grant of mining leases and transactions of some shell companies are maintainable and the bench will now proceed with hearings on the merit of the petitions.
Two public interest litigations (PILs) have been filed against Soren and his family members. One pertains to stone mining lease granted by Soren to himself in 2021, which he surrendered in February 4 this year. The second PIL relates to allegations that Soren and his family members have allegedly parked unaccounted money through their associates in shell companies.
Earlier, the division bench of chief justice Dr. Ravi Ranjan and justice SN Prasad on Wednesday reserved its order after concluding the arguments on maintainability.
“Stating that the petitions are maintainable, the bench has admitted our petitions setting aside the arguments put forth by the counsels of the respondents. The court will provide detailed order in a day or two,” said Rajiv Kumar, counsel for petitioner Shiv Shankar Sharma.
The bench wanted to proceed with hearing on the merits of the case but on request of the state the matter has been listed for the next hearing on June 10, Kumar added.
The PILs related to shell companies and mining lease were filed by one Shiv Shankar Sharma on October 10, 2021 and February 16, 2022, respectively. Besides these two PILs, the division bench has been hearing another petition related to MNREGA scam in which suspended Mines secretary Pooja Singhal was arrested last month.
While hearing the petition related to shell companies, the bench passed two interim orders on May 13 and 19. The two orders were challenged by the Jharkhand government, which filed a special leave application (SLP) before the Supreme Court, arguing that the bench can’t allow arguments on merits of the case and allow any agency to submit ‘evidence’ in sealed cover before deciding on the maintainability of the PIL.
Disposing of the special leave petition (SLP) on May 24, a division bench of the Supreme Court had directed the Jharkhand high court to first decide on the maintainability of the PIL before proceeding further as per law.
During the hearing on maintainability on June 1, Kapil Sibal, counsel for the state government, demanded dismissal of the petition related to the shell companies on grounds of credentials of the petitioner, authenticity of the documents relied upon for filing the petition and cited several SC judgements to substantiate his arguments.
Senior counsel Mukul Rohtagi, appearing on behalf of chief minister Hemant Soren, questioned the maintainability of both PILs related to mining lease and shell companies, respectively, against the chief minister.
The high court decision is set to mount problems for the Jharkhand chief minister as besides the PILs seeking probe by central agencies, the Election Commission of India (ECI) is also hearing a complaint against him and his legislator brother Basant Soren.
The opposition BJP’s complaint has alleged that the duo held office-of-profit by virtue of holding mining lease and hence should be disqualified from the Jharkhand assembly for violating section 9A of the Representation of People’s Act 1951.
