RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, May 16: The Jharkhand High Court today heard a PIL involving the issue of grant of mining lease to Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren and his close ones and gave opportunity to petitioner Sunil Kumar Mahto to file a rejoinder in the matter.
The development took place after the state government filed a reply in this matter and Kapil Sibal appearing on behalf of the state government online said that a PIL on a similar matter was filed by Shivshanker Sharma and the Supreme Court had rejected the same in the month of November last year.
Mahto confirmed the development saying that the court has given us an opportunity to file a rejoinder deferring the hearing till June 16.
“After we read the reply filed on behalf of the state government, we concluded that a para wise reply was not given in the matter. Our PIL was different as several new points of public interest were included in it. Thus, we decided to file a rejoinder in the matter,” he said.
The case was heard by a division bench headed by Chief Justice Sanjaya Kumar Mishra.
The petitioner’s advocate while seeking time to file a rejoinder explained how the matter was fit to be heard as a PIL.
“Question of credibility of the petitioner was involved in an old PIL which reached before the apex court after the high court held it maintainable. Unlike that PIL, there is no question on the credibility of the petitioner in the petition and public interest is involved in it,” the petitioner’s advocate Vishal Kumar submitted.
