The vacation bench of the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Jharkhand High Court to hear the maintainability of three PILs against the chief minister Hemant Soren as well as the MGNREGA scam in Khunti.

Petitioners Shiv Shankar Sharma and Arun Kumar Dubey have sought a CBI inquiry stating that there are serious allegations against the Chief Minister and his associates for investing in shell companies, the stone mining lease issued in the name of the chief minister, and wide level corruption in the MGNREGA project.  

The vacation bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Justice Bela M Trivedi passed this order while hearing a Special Leave Petition filed by the Jharkhand government.

Senior lawyer Kabil Sibal, who appeared on behalf of the Jharkhand government, said that Jharkhand High Court was relying upon a sealed covered document that the Enforcement Directorate gave to the court related to the ongoing investigation. The report claims to have mentioned how powerful people have looted the resources of the state.

The SC in the order maintained that the High Court on May 13 has already stated that it would hear the argument over the maintainability of these PILs.

“Since the High Court has observed in its order dated 13 May 2022 that it would deal with the maintainability of the petition upfront, we are of the considered view that it would be appropriate in the interests of justice that the Division Bench presided over by the learned Chief Justice does so before without proceeding to the merits of the public interest litigation. The issue of maintainability should be dealt with by the High Court on the next date of listing when the proceedings are taken up. Based on the outcome of the objections to the maintainability of the proceedings, the High Court may thereafter proceed in accordance with law,” the order reads.

In another word, the SC has refused to grant any relief to the Jharkhand government in this matter and said that High Court should hear the case.

“This Court has had no occasion to deal with the merits of the rival contentions which arise in the Special Leave Petitions or nor has it become necessary for this Court to express any view on the allegations which are levelled in the writ petition since that is a matter which is pending consideration before the High Court,” SC further observed.

Kapil Sibal said that petitioner Shiv Shankar Sharma has a political motive behind filing a PIL against Hemant Soren and he suppressed the fact that a similar PIL was rejected by the High Court with the cost of the case.