Delhi High Court refuses to interfere with Lokpal proceedings against Shibu Soren

The Delhi High Court on Monday refused to interfere with proceedings pending before the Lokpal of India against former Jharkhand Chief Minister and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) patriarch Shibu Soren in a case related to alleged accumulation of disproportionate assets [Shibu Soren v Lokpal of India & Anr]..Justice Subramonium Prasad held that Soren's plea was premature as the Lokpal is yet to apply its mind to the information provided by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and decide whether an investigation is necessary or not. The Court rejected argument by Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, who appeared for Soren, that the complaint filed against his client is completely motivated and the Lokpal would invariably order investigation. "As stated earlier, the Office of Lokpal is completely independent and an argument that the Lokpal would be influenced by political consideration cannot be countenanced. This allegation that the proceedings before the Lokpal is vitiated and can be politically motivated, cannot be accepted," the Court said. It added, "The Lokpal will examine the entire matter independently and shall take a decision as to whether an investigation has to be ordered or not which order is always amenable for challenge under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. The CBI has submitted a preliminary inquiry and the Lokpal has to take a decision as to whether to proceed further in the case or not."The Court then proceeded to dispose of the plea. .Soren, who is now a Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP), had approached the Court challenging the proceedings before the Lokpal and its order dated August 4, 2022, through which proceedings were directed to be initiated to determine whether a prima facie case exists to proceed further against him.His plea argued that this order was passed without considering Soren’s objections that no inquiry could be conducted against him because the complaint had been filed more than seven years after the alleged incident. Section 53 of the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act 2013 bars such investigation after the expiry of the limitation period, Soren argued.The plea further said that proceedings before the Lokpal have been registered pursuant to a complaint dated August 5, 2020, and that although the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) commenced a preliminary enquiry sometime in July 2021 against Soren, his wife and their children, no copy of the complaint was provided to Soren till the end of February 2022..Soren also challenged the Lokpal’s order of September 2020 through which the Lokpal directed the CBI to conduct a preliminary inquiry against Soren and submit a report.The allegations against Soren are that he amassed huge wealth, properties and assets by adopting unscrupulous and corrupt means in the State of Jharkhand over a period of more than ten years.The assets, it is alleged, are not only in his own name but even in the names of his family members including sons, daughters, daughter-in-law, friends and various companies in various districts of Jharkhand, such as Ranchi, Dhanbad and Dumka etc. .The JMM patriarch has termed the allegations and the complaint mischievous, false, frivolous and motivated and a rambling yarn spun by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Nishikant Dubey.“No instance of even a single specific purported act of corruption is alleged in the Complaint. The Complaint is devoid of any particulars whatsoever and is a rambling yarn spun by the Respondent No.2, (Nishikant Dubey) a disgruntled and unsuccessful political opponent of the Petitioner and his party which has formed the Government in the State of Jharkhand pursuant to the Assembly elections held in 2019,” the plea said..Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and Arunabh Chowdhury along with advocates Krishnaraj Thaker, Pragya Baghel, Vaibhav Tomar and Aparajita Jamwal appeared for Shibu Soren. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, Central Government Standing Counsel (CGSC) Apoorv Kurup along with advocates Akhil Hasija, Gauri, Shivash Dwivedi, Kirti Dadeech, Ojaswa Pathak and Apoorv Jha appeared for Lokpal of India. Complainant Nishikant Dubey was represented through Senior Advocate Atmaram NS Nadkarni as well as advocates Rishi K Awasthi, Piyush Vatsa and Shubham Saxena. .[Read Judgment]