Relief for Soren: SC allows appeals against HC order on mining lease probe

The Supreme Court on Monday (November 7) granted relief to Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren by ruling that the public interest litigations (PILs) against him are not maintainable. Earlier, the Jharkhand High Court had admitted two PILs which demanded an investigation against Soren for alleged money laundering.

Soren welcomed the Supreme Court’s order with a tweet captioned: “Satyameva Jayate!”

The JMM leader has been accused of granting himself a mining lease as the state’s mining minister.

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“We have allowed these two appeals and have set aside the June 3, 2022 order passed by the Jharkhand High Court, holding that these PILs were not maintainable,” the bench said.

A bench of Justices U U Lalit, S R Bhat and Sudhanshu Dhulia had reserved its judgement on August 17 on separate pleas of the Jharkhand government and Soren against the high court’s order that accepted the maintainability of the PILs.

The apex court had earlier restrained the high court from proceedings with the PILs seeking a probe against Soren in the mining lease issue.

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The allegations against Soren have been levelled by the BJP, making him susceptible to disqualification. While the Election Commission has advised Governor Ramesh Bais to take action against the chief minister, the governor is yet to take a decision in this regard.

In July, the Enforcement Directorate during raids arrested Soren’s aide Pankaj Mishra and two others while seizing ₹11.88 crore from Mishra’s bank accounts. The agency said it also seized ₹5.34 crore unaccounted cash from Mishra’s residence.

(With inputs from agencies)