VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, June 17: The Hemant Soren government has suffered a jolt as the Supreme Court on Friday refused to hear the SLPs filed by the government on an urgent basis. The SLPs were filed to challenge the maintainability order passed by the Jharkhand High Court in the favour of twin PILs against Chief Minister Hemant Soren.
This Supreme Court has not put a stay on the proceedings of Jharkhand High Court. The Supreme Court has listed the matter for hearing on July 11.
During the hearing of the SLP 1062/2022 and 1063/2022, Justice J.K. Maheshwari and Justice Hima Kohli said that SLPs can’t be heard on an urgent basis. The state government was represented by senior lawyer Mukul Rohtagi.
Mukul Rohatgi pressed for the hearing stating that the matter is highly politicised. To this, the Supreme Court said that the state government should tell this to the Jharkhand High Court. Mukul Rohatgi further urged the Supreme Court to interfere, as this is a matter of national interest. The vacation court said that in the opinion of the court this matter is not urgent and if the state considers it so urgent then the state should approach the Supreme Court after vacation.
The twin PILs 4290/2021 related to shell companies and 727/2022 related to CM availing mining lease were listed for hearing on June 17 by the division bench of Chief Justice Dr. Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad. The Advocate General of Jharkhand Rajiv Ranjan on Wednesday filed a petition to seek an adjournment of the hearing of the PILs on the ground that the state government has filed SLPs at the Supreme Court, besides, he and senior lawyer Kapil Sibal have turned Covid positive.
