On Monday, The Supreme Court held that a PIL filed against Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren in the Jharkhand High Court alleging money laundering and irregularities in granting mining leases is not maintainable.

The Jharkhand high court upheld the maintainability of a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking an investigation into the chief minister in a mining lease case. Hemant Soren had previously stated that a petition seeking an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into a stone mining lease case was an attempt to "destabilise the democratically-elected state government."

A bench consisting of Chief Justice of India Uday Umesh Lalit, Justice S Ravindra Bhat, and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia earlier reserved the order. Justice Dhulia, who delivered the decision today, stated that the Court had allowed the appeals filed by the Jharkhand State government and Chief Minister Soren challenging the High Court's order accepting the maintainability of the PILs. After the High Court accepted the sealed cover documents produced by the Enforcement Directorate in the PILs, the State and the CM petitioned the Supreme Court.

During the hearing, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the State government, made a number of submissions, including demonstrating the original petitioner's questionable conduct, how the High Court looked into the merits of the case despite the Supreme Court's order instructing it to consider maintainability first, and how the Enforcement Directorate produced materials in a sealed cover despite the absence of any incriminating evidence against Soren.

In this regard, the Court had previously condemned the use of the PIL route to initiate an Enforcement Directorate (ED) investigation when no predicate offence had been registered.

Case Details

State of Jharkhand v. Shiv Shankar Sharma| SLP(C) 10622/2022

Hemant Soren v. Shiv Shankar Sharma SLP(C) No.11364-11365/2022