 against Chief Minister Hemant Soren related to shell companies and mining lease maintainable.){kind=link}
The Jharkhand government has moved the Supreme Court against the Jharkhand High Court order holding that the PIL filed against Chief Minister Hemant Soren over alleged money laundering charges is maintainable. The government is likely to mention the appeal and seek an early hearing in the matter on Monday.
The High Court bench of Chief Justice Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad said on Wednesday that the PIL is maintainable and listed the matter for June 10 for further hearing.
The Jharkhand CM is said to have several shell companies through which the money laundering is channeled and the PIL is on this. The Jharkhand High Court rejected the arguments made by Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and Mukul Rohatgi questioning the maintainability of the PILs filed against Soren and his associates in its 79-page order.
The High Court in its order has mentioned what objections were raised by the respondent’s lawyers:
a) PIL was not filed with the rules framed by Jharkhand High Court.
b) Petitioner has not furnished the credentials as required by the court.
c) The writ petition is filed with malafide intention since there is grudge that petitioner holds against the father of Hemant Soren(Shri Shibu Soren who served Jharkhand thrice as CM)in an old case.
d) The writ petitioner directly rushed to high court without using any remedy under he Code of Criminal Procedure.
This order was passed after the Supreme Court bench of Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice Bela M. Trivedi had directed the Jharkhand High Court to view the maintainability of the issue first.
The Apex Court asked the High Court to decide on the maintainability of the PIL when the Jharkhand Government had moved a plea seeking a copy of the sealed cover submitted by the Enforcement Directorate in the HC.