Office of profit: Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren unlikely to be disqualified as MLA, say legal experts
The Article authorises the governor to decide on disqualifying an elected member of the state Assembly on the poll panel’s opinion. RANCHI: As a war of words between Jharkhand’s ruling JMM and opposition BJP continues over Chief Minister Hemant Soren ’s alleged office of profit case, legal experts claimed that in the light of earlier Supreme Court verdicts, it is unlikely that he will be disqualified as an MLA. The chief minister, who was accused of violating a provision of the Representation of the People Act, is currently not in Jharkhand and speculations are rife that he is consulting lawyers. Governor Ramesh Bais also called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi earlier this week but what transpired in those meetings is not known. Following the BJP’s allegation that Soren, while heading the mining department, allotted a stone chips mining lease to himself in 2021 flouting office of profit norms, Bais sent the party’s representation to t...