Mining lease case: Hearing on Hemant Soren and Jharkhand govt pleas on August 17

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday said that it would hear on Wednesday (August 17) the separate pleas moved by the Jharkhand government and state chief minister Hemant Soren challenging the high court’s order accepting maintainability of PIL seeking probe against the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader, who has been accused of granting himself a mining lease as the state’s mining minister.

The apex court has also asked for a copy of the petition along with annexures and the pleadings exchanged by the parties to be placed on record in the ongoing trial.

The matter came up for hearing on Friday before a bench of Justices U U Lalit and SR Bhat. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Jharkhand government, told the bench that it is a ‘motivated’ public interest litigation (PIL) which needs to be ‘thrown out’.

BJP national vice president and former Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das had in February this year claimed Soren abused his position and granted himself the favour of a mining lease, an issue involving both the conflict of interest and corruption. 

He also alleged violations of provisions of the Representation of People Act. Taking cognisance of the controversy, the Election Commission of India (ECI) sent a notice to chief minister Soren in May seeking his version on the mining lease issued in his favour when he himself holds the Mining and Environment portfolios. The issue is still pending with the EC.

The plea before the Jharkhand High Court had sought a probe into alleged irregularities in the grant of mining lease as also the transactions of some shell companies allegedly linked to the chief minister’s family members and associates.  

On June 3, the high court had said it was of the considered opinion that writ petitions cannot be thrown away on the ground of maintainability and it will proceed to hear the matters on merit.