It was a big relief for Jharkhand Chief minister Hemant Soren as the Supreme Court set aside the Jharkhand high courtโs orders holding Public Interest Litigations (PILs) seeking a probe against Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader as maintainable and decided to proceed with them.
A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) UU Lalit and Justices S Ravindra Bhat and Sudhanshu Dhulia dismissed the PIL in the case involving the alleged lease and investment in a shell company made by close aides of Jharkhand CM.
The SC bench said the petitioner, Shiv Shankar Sharma, had failed to disclose that a โsimilar petitionโ was filed before the HC in 2013, which was dismissed by both the HC as well as the SC.
In his first PIL, Sharma sought a probe by the Income Tax department to look into โmoney transferred by the Soren family in the name of private respondents through shell companies and investigate the source of income of private respondents and financial crime committed byโฆHemant Sorenโฆโ.
In his second petition, Sharma sought โdirectionโฆto prosecute the Chief Minister, who is also the Minister in the Department of Mines. The reason being that he has misused his office in getting a mining lease in his own name.โ
The Jharkhand government had filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court in August to dismiss the PILs in connection to a shell company and a mining lease case against CM Hemant Soren and seek an ED and CBI probe.
The Jharkhand government argued that the rules of the court regarding the filing of PILs, under which Sharma was required to disclose all similar efforts made in the past, were not followed.
In its order, the SC said, โAlthough an apprehension was raised by this court that it is possible that efforts of the petitioner to uncover alleged corruption may be obstructedโฆ yet statutory remedies available to the petitioner must be first exhausted, and only thereafter can he approach the High Court.โ In the present case, the SC said, the petition made โno such effortโ.
The SC also said that the โallegations made by the petitioner are vague, very much generalised and not at all substantiated by anything worthy to be called evidenceโ.
Earlier, CM Soren had filed a petition in the Jharkhand HC demanding action against RTI activist Shiv Sharma under Section 340 of the IPC for misleading the court through two PILs. Soren accused Sharma of damaging and tarnishing his image.