Express News Service
RANCHI: In yet another blow to Chief Minister Hemant Soren, the Jharkhand High Court on Friday gave its approval for the hearing on the PIL seeking a probe against him for the alleged irregularities in the grant of mining leases and also on transactions of some shell companies purportedly operated by his family members and associates.
Disposing of a special leave petition filed by the Jharkhand Government on May 24, the Supreme Court had directed Jharkhand High Court to first decide on the maintainability of the PIL before proceeding further as per law.
According to the PIL filed by an RTI activist Shiv Shankar Sharma, CM Soren and his brother Basant Soren invested black money through businessmen Ravi Kejriwal, Ramesh Kejriwal, Amit Agrawal, and several others in 28 small companies to get them converted into white money. Sharma in his PIL also demanded probe by the CBI and ED into the shell companies which are being run in other statesincluding Jharkhand, Bihar, and West Bengal.
Earlier on Thursday, the High Court after hearing both sides had kept its order reserved till Friday. The Advocate General, appearing on behalf of the State Government, sought time till the copy of the order comes to him, which was opposed by petitioner’s advocate Rajeev Kumar saying that there is a possibilitythat the evidence might get tampered if the hearing is deferred further.
The Court then fixed the time for the next hearing on June 10. “We have crossed the first hurdle as the Jharkhand High Court has said that the petition, seeking investigation against Chief Minister Hemant Soen for the alleged irregularities in the grant of mining leases and also on transactions of some shell companies operated by his family members and associates, is maintainable,” said petitioner’s advocate Rajeev Kumar. The matter will be heard on merit next on June 10, he added.
“The Court said that since the order is quite lengthy, it will be uploaded on the site of Jharkhand High Court in the next 2-3 days,” said Kumar.
Earlier, while hearing the petition related to shell companies, the division bench of Chief Justice Dr Ravi Ranjan and Justice SN Prasad 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 the merits of the case and allow any agency to submit ‘evidence’ in a sealed cover before deciding on the maintainability of the PIL.
Acting on SLP, the Supreme Court disposed of the SLP on May 24 and directed the division bench of Jharkhand High Court to first decide on the maintainability of the PIL before proceeding further as per law. Kapil Sibal, counsel appearing on behalf of the state government, while hearing on maintainability of the petition on Thursday, had 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 andcited several SC judgments to substantiate his arguments.
Senior counsel Mukul Rohtagi, appearing on behalf of Hemant Soren, also questioned the credentials of the petitioner and informed the court about the previous involvement of his father in a case related to Shibu Soren.
