Supreme Court refuses to stay CBI probe in Jharkhand illegal mining case but says no chargesheet to be filed

The Supreme Court on Friday declined to stay the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into an illegal mining case allegedly involving the associates of former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren [State of Jharkhand v. Central Bureau of Investigation and Another]..The Bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Dutta, however, ordered that the central agency should not file any chargesheet or final report before the trial court for the time being.While issuing notice on the Jharkhand government's appeal, the Court listed the matter for hearing in third week of July."There will be no stay of the probe but no chargesheets to be filed (in interim) and no final report to be given to trial court till then," it ordered..Initially, the Bench was inclined to dismiss the plea of Jharkhand government.During the hearing, Justice Datta pointed out that in 2021, the top court had refused to interfere with the CBI probe against the former State Home Minister of Maharashtra, Anil Deshmukh.However, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the Jharkhand government, insisted that the Court should issue notice and consider the matter..The State government has filed the appeal against a decision of the Jharkhand High Court dismissing its petition against CBI probe in the matter. The CBI had initiated the probe on the basis of a High Court order.However, the State in a separate petition had challenged the First Information Report (FIR) registered by the CBI on the ground that no consent had been taken from it by the central agency under the Delhi Special police Establishment Act, 1946.On February 23, a single-judge of the High Court dismissed the State's petition and observed that it was not going to sit in appeal over a co-ordinate bench's decision asking CBI to proceed in accordance with law..In its appeal, Jharkhand government has argued that the High Court while dismissing its petition overlooked the provisions of Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946 under which the CBI has to take consent from the State government.In the absence of such consent, the investigation by CBI is illegal, the State has said. It has also contended that the High Court in its order had only asked the CBI to do a preliminary investigation on why the complainant Bijay Hansda withdrew his petition for CBI probe, rather than initiating a probe on illegal mining..The appeal was filed through advocate Jayant Mohan..[Read Live Updates]