Jharkhand mining scam: PIL against Soren maintainable, says HC

Plea seeks probe into role of CM in grant of mining lease

The Jharkhand High Court on Friday accepted the maintainability of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking probe against Chief Minister Hemant Soren for his alleged role in the mining scam of the State. The court fixed June 10 as the next date of hearing. The Division Bench of Chief Justice Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad had concluded the hearing on Wednesday; on the directive of the Supreme Court, the order was passed on Friday.

The two-judge Bench observed that there was no anomaly in the PIL filed by Shiv Shankar Sharma and there was no bar on why it couldn’t be heard in the High Court. It later fixed June 10 for the next date of hearing.

The petitioner had filed two separate PILs: the first related to the alleged allotment of a mining licence in the name of Mr. Soren himself, and the second about shell companies allegedly operated by Mr. Soren and other members of his family to launder money.

The PIL also referred to former Jharkhand Mining Secretary Puja Singhal, who is currently being interrogated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) after a huge stash of money was recovered from her residence recently. Ms. Singhal was Mining Secretary when Mr. Soren was the State’s Minister of Mining.

Earlier, the Jharkhand government had approached the Supreme Court raising the issue of maintainability of the PIL in the High Court. The Supreme Court, though, directed the High Court to decide the issue before hearing arguments.

On Friday, the State’s Advocate General, Rajiv Ranjan, pleaded before the Division Bench for granting some more time on the ground that senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who had appeared for the State government earlier, was not available for arguments on the next date. The court, however, refused to alter the next date of hearing.