SC declares PILs against Hemant Soren in Jharkhand HC ‘not maintainable’
New Delhi, November 7: The Supreme Court on Monday ordered that the PILs filed in the Jharkhand High Court seeking a probe against Chief Minister Hemant Soren for alleged money laundering were not maintainable.
On Monday, the top court ruled that the Jharkhand High Court should not have entertained the PIL against state Chief Minister Hemant Soren based on 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 stated.
The ruling was passed by a three-Judge bench including 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 added.
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"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 apex court ruled as it noted that the petitioner in the PILs did not go with clean hands before the High Court.
Thus, the bench opined 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 remarked.
"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."
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