Jharkhand HC to hear plea against CM Hemant Soren’s mining lease grant on May 19

The ED on Monday had submitted its report in a sealed cover on the fresh findings following the raids and arrest of suspended mines secretary Pooja Singhal and CA Suman Kumar in connection with the alleged MNREGA scam.

Ranchi: The Jharkhand high court will continue to hear on May 19 the two PILs seeking CBI and ED probe into the mining lease granted to CM Hemant Soren and alleged shell companies operated by his family members and associates, by one Shiv Shankar Sharma, lawyers who participated in the hearing on Tuesday said.

The Jharkhand high court will hear on May 19 the two PILs seeking probes into the mining lease granted to CM Hemant Soren and alleged shell companies operated by his family members. (HT FILE PHOTO.)

As part of the hearing, the division bench of Chief Justice Dr. Ravi Ranjan and Justice SN Prasad also directed to club the PIL filed by one Arun Dubey that led to an ED probe in the MNREGA scam for hearing along with the other two petitions on Thursday.

Senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Mukul Rohatgi appeared on behalf of the state government and chief minister Hemant Soren respectively while solicitor general Tushar Mehta appeared on behalf of the Enforcement Directorate. The ED on Monday had submitted its report in a sealed cover on the fresh findings following the raids and arrest of suspended mines secretary Pooja Singhal and CA Suman Kumar in connection with the alleged MNREGA scam.

“After hearing both sides, the bench has listed the matter for further hearing virtually on Thursday at 10.30 am. We had pleaded for hearing in a physical court as we wanted to show related documents to the court. But the bench turned down our request probably because senior lawyers are appearing in the case from Delhi,” Jharkhand advocate general Rajiv Ranjan said.

Appearing on behalf of the Jharkhand government, senior counsel Kapil Sibal argued on the maintainability of the PIL related to shell companies on several grounds including credentials of the petitioner, non-compliance of PIL rules and others, said Amritansh Vats, counsel of Hemant Soren’s lawyer assisting Mukul Rohtagi in the hearing.

“Questioning the maintainability, senior counsel Kapil Sibal also raised the issue of absence of any FIR related to the shell companies. The petitioner’s counsel Rajiv Kumar put forth that a separate PIL has also been filed in connection with the MNREGA scam. The solicitor general appearing on behalf of the ED informed the court that 16 FIRs were filed in MNREGA case and ED took over the probe from there. The bench directed that the third PIL related to MNREGA be clubbed for hearing on the next date,” added Vats.