‘Illegal mining’ case: Relief for Hemant Soren as Supreme Court sets aside Jharkhand HC order

In his first PIL, Sharma had sought, among others, a probe by the Directorate General, Income Tax, Investigation, to look into “money transferred by Soren family in the name of private respondents through shell companies and investigate the source of income of private respondents and financial crime committed by…Hemant Soren…”.

His second petition sought “direction…to prosecute the Chief Minister, who is also the Minister in the Department of Mines. The reason being that he has misused his office in getting a mining lease in his own name.”

The State moved SC against the HC order, saying the rules of the court regarding filing of PILs, under which Sharma was required to disclose all similar efforts made in the past, were not followed.

“Although an apprehension was raised by this court that it is possible that efforts of the petitioner to uncover alleged corruption may be obstructed… yet statutory remedies available to the petitioner must be first exhausted and only thereafter can he approach the High Court,” the court said. In the present case, it said, the petition made “no such effort”.

The “allegations made by the petitioner are vague, very much generalised and not at all substantiated by anything worthy to be called an evidence”, the apex court said.