SOREN REPLIES TO EC NOTICE ON MINE LEASE ISSUE
HT Correspondent
RANCHI: Ten days after Election Commission of India (ECI) gave Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren additional time to respond to a notice on an allegation that he was issued a mining lease, the CM finally replied to the same on Friday. An ECI official on Friday confirmed receiving the reply from the chief minister but refused to share details.
The matter pertains to a stone chips mining lease, Soren got in his name on the outskirts of Ranchi in 2008, with the mines and environment department headed by him giving nod to his application. The charge against Soren, if true, amounts to holding an “office of profit” and hence could invite his disqualification from the legislative assembly under the Representation of People’s Act.
While the officials in the chief minister’s office remained tight lipped about his reply, a functionary in the ruling establishment said Soren’s reply has been filed on the lines of an affidavit filed before the Jharkhand high court on May 5 in another PIL in the same case.
A senior ECI official said Soren had requested for a hearing in the matter.
“That is granted. Hearing will take place of May 31. He can appear through his advocate,” said the official.
AGRA: The management of the Shahi Eidgah Masjid in Mathura said on Friday it will approach the Allahabad high court against a district court decision that held a petition calling for the removal of the mosque and handing over the entire premises to the Katra Keshav Dev Temple was maintainable and could be heard in a lower court.
The district court’s decision on Thursday overturned a verdict by a Mathura civil court, which dismissed the petition in 2020 and said it violated the provisions of the 1991 Places of Worship Act, which locked the character of places of worship as they existed on the day of India’s Independence, with the exception of the Ayodhya dispute.
“We have received the copy of the order dated May 19 and the same is being examined. The observations made by the court while allowing the revision are being studied in the light of legal provisions,” said Tanveer
Ahmed, secretary and counsel of the managing committee of Shahi Eidgah mosque, which abuts the Sri Krishna Temple.
“Findings and observations made by the court of district judge while allowing the revision appear not to be legally tenable and as such the order passed will be challenged in Allahabad high court...” added Ahmed.
The plea was originally filed in the court of Mathura civil judge (senior division) on September 25, 2020 by Lucknowbased lawyer, Ranjana Agnihotri, and six others as the “next friend” of Bhagwan Sri Krishna Virajman, the presiding deity at the Mathura temple. Next friend is a legal representative of someone incapable of maintaining a suit directly.
The suit claimed that Shahi Eidgah Masjid was constructed on a part of 13.37-acre land belonging to the Sri Krishna Janmabhoomi Trust. They demanded the mosque be removed and land returned to the trust. However, the civil judge (senior division) rejected the suit on September 30, 2020 as non-admissible. The petitioners then moved district court.
District and sessions judge Rajeev Bharti allowed the revision on Thursday. The next hearing is scheduled on May 26 in the court of civil judge (senior division) in Mathura.
Hari Shankar Jain, the counsel for Hindu petitioners, said Thursday’s order will help “in bringing the truth of Mathura out in the open”.