Ranchi: Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren was on Friday served a notice by the high court.
The notice relates to a petition filed against Soren for owning a mining lease in Ranchi district’s Angara block. The petitioner has pointed out that the chief minister himself holds the state’s Mining portfolio, The Indian Express reported.
A bench of Chief Justice Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad said that “a serious matter” has been raised before the court and, accordingly, the court issued a notice to respondent number seven, Hemant Soren.
The petition, filed by Shiv Shankar Sharma on granting of stone chips mining lease in Ranchi last year, stated that the Jharkhand High Court has been approached for an “appropriate direction to prosecute the Chief Minister”, who is the state’s Minister of Department of Mines, as he “misused” his office in getting mining lease in his name.
The petitioner stated that the CM obtained a lease of 0.88 acre area in Angara block of Ranchi and a Letter of Intent had been issued by Ranchi’s District Mining Office on June 16, 2021. On September 9, Soren applied for environmental clearance of the said mine and clearance was given by the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority by September 18, the petition added.
Soren is also in charge of Department of Environment and Forests.
Advocate General Rajiv Ranjan said that the state had committed “a mistake” and the lease has since been “surrendered”.
