The Supreme Court has listed two SLPs of the Jharkhand government for an urgent hearing where the State government has challenged the maintainability judgment delivered by the Jharkhand High Court regarding two PILs related to money laundering through shell companies and mining lease issue of the chief minister Hemant Soren.
As per the schedule, the vacation bench of the Supreme Court Justice J.K. Maheshwari and Justice Hima Kohli will hear the SLPs 1062 / 2022 and 1063/2022 on Friday. The SLPs filed against PIL 4290/2021 pertaining to allegations against the chief minister for parking and laundering money through shell companies and 727/2022 where the petitioner has demanded action against the chief minister for availing stone mining right in his name at Angara in Ranchi. Shiv Shankar Sharma is the petitioner of both PIL and he has demanded a CBI inquiry.
On Wednesday, Advocate General Rajiv Ranjan filed a petition and said that he and Kapil Sibal were unwell due to the Covid 19 and it was not possible for them to attend the court for the physical hearing. Besides, he requested the court to defer the hearing stating that the state has filed SLP at the Supreme Court hence the high court should wait till the SLP is heard by the apex court.
However, on Thursday, the petitioner’s lawyer Rajiv Kumar raised the matter before the court and said that seeking adjournment on the ground of illness and pending SLP would further delay the matter. The bench of Chief Justice Dr. Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad said that they would list both PILs for hearing on Friday to decide whether to hear the matters related to the merit of the PILs or to defer the hearing. By this time the SLP was not listed for hearing at the Supreme Court.
It is not clear who would appear before the Supreme Court on behalf of the state government as Advocate General and Kapil Sibal are ill. The possibility can't be ruled out that Mukul Rohtagi may appear on behalf of the state government.