The bench of Chief Justice Dr. Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad on Thursday deferred the hearing of PILs related to shell companies, allocation of mining lease to the Chief Minister Hemant Soren and Pooja Singhal Khunti district MGNREGA scam till Tuesday.

The court passed this order after Supreme Court lawyer Kabil Sibal who argued on behalf of the Jharkhand government said that they have filed a petition at the Supreme Court to challenge the previous order of the court in this matter passed on Tuesday.

Sibal said that the SC is likely to take up the petition of the state on May 20 hence the High Court should wait till an order is passed by the apex court.  He was assisted by Advocate General Rajiv Ranjan whereas Tushar Mehta represented the Enforcement Directorate.

During the hearing, the Chief Justice said that the court has received the investigation report from the Enforcement Directorate. The Chief Justice said that the court is hearing an important and urgent matter and the report of the agency reveals that it is a matter of paramount public interest.

Sibal said that respondents should be given a copy of the investigation report of the ED to file a reply. Tushar Mehta opposed the plea of Sibal and said that in cases like these; documents, evidence, and reports can’t be shared with anybody except the court till the charge sheet is filed. He referred to the case of P. Chidambaram.

On this Sibal said that in such a situation he may not be able to assist the court. The bench was not happy with such a remark made by Sibal. The court initially fixed Saturday for the hearing and rescheduled it to Monday at the request of the Advocate General. But later on, he requested the court to fix a hearing on Tuesday as Sibal was not available on Monday. On this, the court asked him not to detect the court and said why the court should reschedule the hearing because of Sibal who has refused to assist the court.