‘Pinnacle Court declines to pause HC hearing on Hemant Soren and said ‘you can wait’

Two PILs were filed against Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren and his family members by one Shiv Shankar Sharma on October 21, 2021 and February 16 this year.

The Supreme Court on Friday declined to prevent the Jharkhand tribunal from hearing two petitions to hunt a research by central agencies into alleged irregularities in grant of mining leases by chief minister Hemant Soren and concealing by shell companies allegedly operated, among others, by his members of the family.

“You can wait after the supreme court has decided the matter finally. Let the state supreme court decide. you have got the choice to return at a later stage. We aren't visiting decide this in a very piecemeal way,” the bench of justices JK Maheshwari and Hima Kohli told senior lawyer Mukul Rohatgi who appeared for the authorities.

At Rohatgi’s request, the highest court allowed the state to renew its request in July when the highest court reopens after vacation.

The authorities had challenged the high court’s June 3 decision that rejected objections to hearing the 2 public interest litigation (PILs). The state has claimed that the PIL has been filed with political motives to destabilize the govt and therefore the state supreme court agreed to listen to the matter without examining the credentials of the petitioner as needed under the court rules.

The authorities said PIL petitioner Shiv Shankar Sharma didn't disclose that his father testified against the chief minister’s father Shibu Soren in a very murder case in 2006. The veteran Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader was acquitted within the murder case.

The Jharkhand government first approached the Supreme Court against the petitions last month. But the highest court on May 24 told the state supreme court to first decide the objections on the maintainability of the PIL before proceeding on merits.

Rohatgi said, “The order glided by the supreme court is pursuant to the present court’s order. The judicature has involved the substance of various matters as there are two other PILs. These are politically motivated cases only to destabilize the govt..”

The first PIL sought a research by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and ED into the allegations of irregularities within the grant of mining lease, while the second PIL alleged that Soren and his members of the family have parked unaccounted money through their associates in shell companies.

The authorities objected to the PIL, saying that ED cannot probe without there being any first information report (FIR) containing the allegations levelled by the petitioner. Soren has denied the allegations levelled against him.

ED told the highest court on legal holiday that the case has multiple dimensions which also involved the alleged embezzlement of spiritual leader National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGA) fund involving former divisional commissioner Pooja Singhal, who was also the mining secretary within the state.

While probing concealing charges against Singhal, who was arrested last month, ED claimed to own discovered sensitive material regarding shell companies and money trails. The PIL before the state supreme court mentioned a listing of 28 shell companies which ED believed that the information recovered from Singhal can be linked to a number of them.