Jharkhand HC should not have entertained PIL against CM Soren on basis of mere allegations: Supreme Court
Nov 07, 2022
New Delhi [India], November 7 : The Supreme Court on Monday remarked that the Jharkhand High Court should not have entertained the PIL against state Chief Minister Hemant Soren on the basis of mere allegations and half-baked truth.
"It was not proper for the High Court to entertain a PIL which is based on mere allegations and half-baked truth that too at the hands of a person who has not been able to fully satisfy his credentials and has come to the Court with unclean hands," the Court said.
These observation was passed by a bench of Chief Justice UU Lalit and justices Ravindra Bhat and Sudhanshu Dhulia, which allowed Soren and Jharkhand Government plea and set aside the Jharkhand High Court order accepting the maintainability of the PIL against Soren.
"We are not for a moment saying that people who occupy high offices should not be investigated, but for a High Court to take cognizance of the matter on these generalized submissions which do not even make prima facie satisfaction of the Court, is nothing but an abuse of the process of the Court," the court said.
"The nondisclosure of the credentials of the petitioner and the past efforts made for similar reliefs as it has been mandated under the Rules, 2010 further discredits these petitions," the court said as it noted that petitioner in the PILs did not go with clean hands before the High Court.
Hence the court opined his view that such a petition was liable to be dismissed at the very threshold itself.
"If the petitioner has a genuine reason to pursue the matter, he has his remedies available under the Companies Act or under other provisions of the law where he can apprise the relevant authorities of the misdeeds of the Directors or Promoters of the Companies," the Court said.
"But on generalized averments which are nothing but mere allegations at this stage, the Court cannot become a forum to investigate the alleged acts of misdeeds against high constitutional authorities," the court said.
The Jharkhand Government and chief minister Hemant Soren has moved the apex court against an order of the high court which had accepted maintainability of PIL in connection with shell companies allegedly related to Hemant Soren and his associates.
The Jharkhand government has filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the apex court challenging the Jharkhand High Court's order.
On June 3, Jharkhand High Court held two PILs against Soren and rejected the arguments made by senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Mukul Rohatgi (questioning the maintainability of the two PILs filed against CM and his associates) in its 79-page order.
