The Supreme Court on Friday said it will hear on August 17 separate petitions by the Jharkhand government and Chief Minister Hemant Soren, against a High Court order allowing a PIL seeking probe against the JMM leader. Grant of Mining Lease to himself as the Mining Minister of the State. The matter came up for hearing before the bench of Justice UU Lalit and Justice SR Bhat.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Jharkhand government, told the bench that it is a “motivated” Public Interest Litigation (PIL) which needs to be “thrown”. The top court said that a copy of the petition along with the annexures and the arguments exchanged by the parties be kept on record.
BJP national vice-president and former Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das had claimed in February this year that Soren abused his position and favored himself for mining leases, an issue involving both conflict of interest and corruption. . He also alleged violation of the provisions of the Representation of the People Act. Taking cognizance of the dispute, Election commission India (ECI) in May sent a notice to Soren seeking his favor on the mining lease issued in his favor when he himself has the mining and environment departments.
Election Commission sources had said that the ownership of the lease violates Section 9A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which deals with disqualification for government contracts etc. The matter is still pending with the Election Commission. The petition before the Jharkhand High Court had sought a probe into alleged irregularities in the grant of mining leases and transactions of some shell companies allegedly linked to the chief minister’s family members and associates.
The high court had on June 3 said that it was of the considered opinion that writ petitions cannot be dismissed on the basis of maintainability and it would hear the cases on merits. In its order, a Division Bench of the High Court had said, “This Court, after replying to the issue framed by this Court, and on the basis of the above discussions herein, is summarizing its view and of the opinion that the writ petitions cannot be dismissed on the ground of maintainability.” On May 24, the top court had asked the high court to first hear the preliminary objections to the sustainability of the PIL seeking probe.
It had passed the May 24 order on a petition filed by the state against two orders of the High Court in the matter. The top court had also clarified that it has not commented on the merits of the case and has not dealt with the allegations made in the petition.
It had noted that three PILs have been filed before the High Court seeking probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against Soren into allegations of corruption, abuse of office and money laundering. Both Soren and his Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) have denied the allegations.
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