RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, June 10: The Jharkhand High Court today deferred hearing PILs involving Chief Minister Hemant Soren till June 17.
Earlier, Advocate General Rajeev Ranjan informed the court that the state government will challenge the high court order on maintainability given on June 3 before the apex court and thus the hearing in the matter should be deferred.
However, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Dr Ravi Ranjan and Justice S.N. Prasad categorically said that the hearing cannot be stayed on the ground as earlier the matter had gone before the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court had already passed an order in the matter.
The division bench was of the opinion that the state has the liberty to go anywhere to challenge the high court order but this cannot stop the high court from hearing the matter. The court was of the opinion that the Supreme Court had asked to decide the maintainability of the PILs first and when it was decided that the PILs are maintainable further hearing should not be stopped.
Notably, a PIL was filed in Jharkhand High Court against CM Hemant Soren on February 11 this year. In the PIL filed by the applicant Shiv Shankar Sharma, it has been said that Chief Minister Soren is also responsible for the Mining and Forest Environment Department. He himself applied for environmental clearance and got a mining lease.
“Doing so is an abuse of office and a violation of the Representation of the People’s Act,” the petition said. “Therefore, this entire matter should be investigated by the CBI.” The applicant has also demanded the cancellation of the membership of Hemant Soren through the petition.
An advocate present during the hearing in the PILs said shared the conversation between the advocate general and the chief justice and said when the advocate general Ranjan said that the state will go to Supreme Court in 4290/21 (case related to shell company), the chief justice let him know that Supreme Court has given the order to adjudicate maintainability in both the cases.
“You will go first in 4290/21, then in 727/22 (mining lease case). We should listen at the earliest. If there is no objection in 727/22 then what is the problem in going ahead,” the chief justice observed while insisting the advocate general to co-operate with the court.
Along with this matter, the hearing on the MNREGA scam case was also held. The high court said that when the ED took action, the government remembered that the amount was withdrawn. The government did not file an FIR on this earlier.
