The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a Special Leave Petition of the Jharkhand Government where the government has challenged Public Interest litigations filed against the Chief Minister Hemant Soren for obtaining the mining leaves as well as the allegation of shell companies.
The government has also challenged the Enforcement Directorate submitting the investigation report to the Jharkhand High Court regarding allegations related to shell companies and the mining lease to the CM.
On Thursday the State government filed an SLP. On Friday the matter was taken up and the bench-headed Justice UU Lalit listed the petition of the State government for hearing on May 24. The vacation bench of the Supreme Court will hear this matter. It should be noted that the Jharkhand High Court also had fixed May 24 to hear the bunch of PIL related to mining lease, shell companies and the alleged scam in the MGNREGA project in Khunti district. The bench of Chief Justice Dr. Ravi Ranjan of the Jharkhand High Court and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad is hearing this matter.
Senior lawyer of Jharkhand High Court Rajiv Kumar who is representing petitioners informed that Jharkhand government has also challenged the maintainability of PILs. "The ED on the instructions of Jharkhand High Court has carried out an investigation and submitted the report in the sealed cover. The state government is opposing this and also wants the copy of this report," he said.
Supreme Court lawyer Kapil Sibal who appeared on behalf of Jharkhand government said that the Jharkhand High Court should not rely upon such documents to order CBI investigation. The high court should also provide the copy of the investigation to other respondents.
During the hearing of this matter before Jharkhand High Court on Thursday Kapil Sibal had raised objection on this matter and said that on the basis of initial documents the High Court should not form any opinion.
Meanwhile, Jharkhand government has directed Ranchi Deputy Commissioner to explain whether or not he is an accused in a criminal case and the matter is pending before the Vigilance Court.