Law Kumar Mishra
Ranchi, September 15
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Thursday called on Governor Ramesh Bais and urged him to clear the confusion prevailing in the state for the last three weeks over the verdict on office-of-profit case pending against him.
Soren continuation as an MLA is under the lenses as the Election Commission of India (ECI) has reportedly sent its opinion to the Governor, Ramesh Bais in an office of profit case. The Chief Minister is charged of allotting a mine in his name while holding the department. The Governor has to take a final call.
The opposition Bhartiya Janata Party was using this “atmosphere of uncertainty” to destabilise a democratically elected government by trying to poach MLAs, Soren claimed.
During the meeting, the Chief Minister briefed about the Angada Mines Lease case of Ranchi and urged Bais to give him an opportunity to put its points at the earliest so that the atmosphere of uncertainty could be cleared and Jharkhand moves forward on the path of progress and development.
The chief minister submitted a two-page letter to the Governor underlining that since February 2022, BJP had been propagating that he would be disqualified from the assembly membership for allotting the stone mining lease. Soren quoted a few rulings of the Supreme Court and said getting a mining lease did not make legislator eligible for disqualification under the provision of section 9 (a) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
The chief minister referred to the meeting of Governor with UPA delegation on September 1 and he (Ramesh Bais) has assured he would announce the opinion at the earliest.
The crucial meeting took place a day after the Jharkhand cabinet Wednesday approved the draft ‘Local Resident of Jharkhand Bill’ of 2022, keeping 1932 as the cut-off year for “proof of land records” for defining a local. The second draft legislative proposal approved by the Cabinet seeks to increase reservation from the current 50 per cent to 67 per cent in Jharkhand.
The development has triggered a debate in the state on its legality.
