High court accepts maintainability of pleas against Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren
Last month, the Election Commission of India had issued a notice to Soren, seeking his stand on the charge, making him liable to be disqualified as a legislator. Following Soren’s written response to the notice, the poll panel had asked him to appear before it either personally or through his counsel on May 31.
Ranchi: The Jharkhand high court on Friday accepted the maintainability of two petitions seeking inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) against chief minister Hemant Soren for alleged irregularities in grant of mining lease and transactions of some shell companies allegedly operated by his family members.
A division bench of chief justice Dr. Ravi Ranjan and justice SN Prasad on Wednesday had reserved its order after concluding the arguments on maintainability of the pleas.
“Stating that the petitions are maintainable, the bench has admitted our pleas and set aside the arguments put forth by the counsels of the respondents. The court will provide a detailed order in a day or two,” Rajiv Kumar, counsel for the petitioner Shiv Shankar Sharma, said.
The bench wanted to proceed with the hearing on the merits of the case but on the request of the state, listed the matter for hearing on June 10, Kumar added.
Sharma had filed two public interest litigations (PILs) against Soren and his family members. One of the petitions which was filed on February 16 pertains to the alleged issuance of a mining lease by Soren, who also holds the mining portfolio, in his name last year. The chief minister has dismissed the allegation.
Last month, the Election Commission of India had issued a notice to Soren, seeking his stand on the charge, making him liable to be disqualified as a legislator. Following Soren’s written response to the notice, the poll panel had asked him to appear before it either personally or through his counsel on May 31. However, Soren asked for more time.
The second PIL, which was filed on October 10 last year, relates to allegations that Soren and his family have parked unaccounted money through their associates in shell companies.
On May 24, the Supreme Court had restrained the Jharkhand high court from considering these two pleas for probe by central agencies without first deciding whether the cases should be entertained as PILs or not.
The state government and Soren had flagged that Sharma, did not divulge that his father testified against the chief minister’s father Shibu Soren in a murder case in 2006, in which the veteran Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader was eventually acquitted.
During the high court hearing on maintainability on June 1, advocate Kapil Sibal, who appeared for the state, had demanded dismissal of the petition related to shell companies, questioning the credentials of the petitioner and authenticity of the documents relied upon for filing the petition.
Besides the two PILs, the division bench is also hearing another petition relating to the MGNREGA fraud case in Khunti district in which suspended mines secretary Pooja Singhal was arrested by the ED last month.