VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, June 17: The Jharkhand High Court on Friday deferred the hearing of the two PILs against Chief Minister Hemant Soren till June 23. The bench of Chief Justice Dr. Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad accepted the request of the state government to extend the date of the hearing.
The Jharkhand government was represented by advocate Piyush Chitresh whereas the Enforcement Directorate and the CBI were represented by ASG SV Raju. The twin PILs 4290/2021 related to shell companies and 727/2022 related to the CM availing mining lease were filed by petitioner Shiv Shankar Sharma. He was represented by his lawyer Rajiv Kumar.
Earlier in the morning, the Supreme Court vacation bench refused to hear SLPs of the state government against the PILs maintainability order of the Jharkhand High Court. The vacation court was of the opinion that the SLP of the state had no merit for an urgent hearing. It listed SLPs for the hearing on July 11.
In both the PILs, the court is set to hear arguments on the merit of the PILs where the petitioner has sought a CBI inquiry of the allegations.