Mining Lease Row: Supreme Court sets aside Hemant Soren's plea against Jharkhand HC order

The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the appeal of Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren and the state govt against the Jharkhand High Court order which had accepted the maintainability of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in connection with shell companies allegedly related to Soren and his associates.

The Court decided to set aside the Jharkhand High Court order in the matter.

The JMM leader has been accused of granting himself a mining lease as the state's mining minister.


"We have allowed these two appeals and have set aside the June 3, 2022 order passed by the Jharkhand High Court, holding that these PILs were not maintainable," PTI quoted the bench as saying.

A bench of Justices U U Lalit, S R Bhat and Sudhanshu Dhulia had reserved its judgement on August 17 on separate pleas of the Jharkhand government and Soren against the high court's order that accepted the maintainability of the PILs.

The apex court had earlier restrained the high court from proceedings with the PILs seeking a probe against Soren in the mining lease issue.

The Jharkhand government had filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the apex court challenging the Jharkhand High Court's order on the maintainability of PIL in connection with shell companies allegedly related to state Chief Minister Hemant Soren and his associates.

(With inputs from PTI)