HC to decide fate of PILs on June 1
RANCHI: The Jharkhand high court will decide on the maintainability of the PILs (public interest litigations) related to chief minister Hemant Soren on June 1, lawyers involved in the proceedings said on Tuesday.
The division bench comprising of chief justice Dr Ravi Ranjan and SN Prasad, while hearing the petitions, also directed all parties to file their replies, if any, by May 31.
“Senior counsel Kabil Sibal, appearing on behalf of the state of Jharkhand, informed the court about the hearing in the Supreme Court and the direction passed. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta also informed the court about it, after which the bench wanted to fix the matter for Wednesday, but on request of government’s counsel, the matter has been fixed for June 1 for next hearing,” said Amritansh Vats, counsel appearing for Soren.
Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court had asked the Jharkhand HC to first hear preliminary objections on the maintainability of the petitions.
Three PILs are under consideration before the HC. While one has sought directions to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to investigate 15 FIRs pertaining to alleged offences arising out of the disbursement of MNREGA funds, another has sought direction for the investigation into the alleged transfer of money by the Soren family and associates into certain shell companies.
The third one has sought a direction for sanction to prosecute the CM under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, for obtaining mining leases in his own name. The HC has bunched the three PILs together and has been hearing them simultaneously.