RANCHI: The Jharkhand High Court provided CM Hemant Soren with significant relief on Wednesday. The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that sought a probe of the mining lease awarded to Chief Minister Hemant and his family members was dismissed by the High Court.

Following the conclusion of the hearing on the PIL filed by counsel and RTI activist Sunil Kumar Mahato on November 29 of last month, the division bench led by Chief Justice Sanjay Kumar Mishra had reserved its decision. For CM Soren, the court’s ruling on Wednesday in this case is a major relief.

Let us remind you that during the hearing on this petition, Advocate General Rajeev Ranjan and Hemant Soren’s advocate Piyush Chitresh had argued on behalf of the state government that the Supreme Court had previously quashed an order passed by the Jharkhand High Court’s division bench against others in a case similar to this one, which was filed by Shiv Shankar Sharma and others. Reiterating the same point in this petition is inappropriate. It ought to be revoked.

During their presentation on behalf of the applicant, Sunil Kumar Mahato, lawyers Rajeev Kumar and Vishal Kumar said that this case is distinct from Shiv Shankar Sharma’s petition that was denied. The primary concern in Shiv Shankar Sharma’s appeal was the allocation of a mining lease in the CM’s name; however, concerns over the CM’s wife and sister-in-law receiving land in the industrial area have also been highlighted in this case.

It should be noted that Chief Minister Hemant Soren was accused of abusing his constitutional position while serving as the Minister of Mines Department in the case filed by Sunil Mahato. He was granted a mining lease at Angada, Ranchi, not only for himself, but also for his wife Kalpana Murmu’s and sister-in-law Sarla Murmu’s company.

Additionally, he had asked the relevant authorities to look into Chief Minister Hemant Soren and his family and take appropriate measures, but none of them did.