VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, June 1: The Jharkhand High Court on Wednesday wondered whether Hemant Soren cares about what people may think about him for securing a stone mining lease in his name at a time when he is the chief minister and mining department minister of Jharkhand.
To this Mukul Rohtagi, appearing for Chief Minister Hemant Soren, tried to explain that no illegality was involved if the CM got a mining lease since he is a citizen.
“I am the Chief Justice of Jharkhand High Court. Should I take all the contracts of the court? What kind of argument is this that he is a citizen? Doesn’t he bother about what people think? He is the chief minister and the mining minister. That’s why I quoted the maxim of Chanakya that the happiness of a ruler lies in the happiness of his subject,” the Chief Justice said.
The observation was made by Chief Justice Dr Ravi Ranjan while hearing the matter related to the maintainability of the PIL of Shiv Shankar Sharma related to allegations against Chief Minister Hemant Soren and his associates for parking their unaccounted money in the shell companies.
During the hearing, petitioner’s lawyer Rajiv Kumar said that other than the chief minister, a mining lease was issued in the favour of his MLA and brother Basant Soren and many persons close to him. The court asked Mukul Rohtagi to explain whether or not mining leases were issued to the CM, Basant Soren and others.
Arguing on the behalf of the Enforcement Directorate, Tushar Mehta said that natural resources are the properties of people and the state and the head of the state is only a trustee. “As per the doctrine of trustee, Chief Minister Hemant Soren is only the trustee. Here in Jharkhand minerals have been looted. It could have been a different matter had the CM been the minister of the mining department also. The state government is trying to stop the investigation on technical issues. In a situation like this, a welfare state will say ‘come and investigate.’ State is defending a private individual. The PIL is related to a very serious matter that should not be dismissed,” said Tushar Mehta.
