Delhi High Court refuses to stay trial against Lalu Prasad Yadav in land-for-job scam

The Delhi High Court recently refused to stay trial court proceedings against Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav in the land-for-jobs scam case..Yadav has moved the High Court seeking quashing of the First Information Report (FIR) registered against him by the Central Bureau of Investigation in 2022. He had urged the Court to stay the trial court proceedings during the pendency of the plea..Justice Ravinder Dudeja on May 29 issued notice to the CBI but found no compelling reasons to stay the proceedings before the trial court. “The present matter is stated to be listed before the learned Special Judge for arguments on charge. Notwithstanding, the pendency of the present petition, petitioner would be at liberty to urge all his contentions before the learned trial court at the stage of consideration of charge. This would be rather an added opportunity to the petitioner to put-forth his point and get the same adjudicated,” the Court said. .Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal appearing for Yadav, earlier submitted that the CBI had failed to obtain mandatory prosecution sanction under Section 17-A of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act against Yadav before registering the FIR.It was also submitted that alleged offences were committed during 2004-2009 but the FIR was lodged only in 2022, almost after a delay of 14 years."No police officer can conduct any enquiry or inquiry or investigation into the offence committed by a public servant where the offence is relatable to any recommendation made or decision taken by such public servant in discharge of his public functions without approval of the competent authority. Without such approval, any enquiry/inquiry/investigation undertaken would be void abinitio," Sibal argued..Seeking a stay on the trial court proceedings, Sibal submitted that the matter is listed for hearing on framing of charges on June 2 and if the charges are framed, then the present petition would become infructuous..However, Senior Public Prosecutor DP Singh submitted that the question on applicability of Section 17-A on obtaining government sanction for offences committed prior to the enactment of the provision is under consideration before a larger bench of the Supreme Court.He also argued that Yadav can make similar submissions before the trial court at the stage of framing of charge..Considering the arguments, the Court dismissed the application for stay..Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and Maninder Singh along with Advocates Varun Jain, Aparjita Jamwal, Naveen Kumar, Akhilesh Singh, Sumit Singh, Deepak, Digvijay Singh Rawat and Vamika Gupta appeared for Yadav. Senior Advocate and Senior Public Prosecutor DP Singh with Advocates Manu Mishra, Garima Saxena, Roshini W Anand and Imaan Khera appeared for CBI.[Read Order]