The Jharkhand Government on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court seeking urgent listing of its petition challenging a High Court order accepting the maintainability of a plea seeking a probe against Chief Minister Hemant Soren.
The plea sought a probe into alleged irregularities in the granting of mining leases and also into the transactions of some shell companies allegedly operated by his family members and associates.On June 3, the Jharkhand High Court had said it was of the considered opinion that the writ petitions cannot be thrown away on the ground of maintainability and it will proceed to hear the matters on merit.
The state government told a vacation bench of Justices A S Bopanna and Vikram Nath that there is urgency. Despite being informed that a special leave petition (SLP) has been filed in the apex court challenging the June 3 order, the Jharkhand High Court has listed the matter for hearing on June 17, it said. The bench told senior advocate Arunabh Chowdhury, who mentioned the matter on behalf of state, to give details about petition to registrar so apex court registry can take orders from the office of chief justice about its listing.
“You just give the details. They (registry) will take orders,” the bench said.
It observed that there are two vacation benches sitting at present and the chief justice would take a call about listing of the matter.When Chowdhury told the bench that the high court has listed the matter for hearing on June 17 despite being informed about filing of the petition in the apex court, the bench said, “Tell this to the registry.”