Supreme Court refuses to entertain Lalu Prasad Yadav plea to defer trial in land-for-jobs case

The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav's plea seeking deferment of trial court proceedings in the land-for-jobs scam case against him [Lalu Prasad Yadav vs Central Bureau of Investigation]..Yadav moved the Court seeking directions to the trial court to defer proceedings till the Delhi High Court concludes hearing his petition to quash the case altogether.However, a Bench of Justices MM Sundresh and N Kotiswar Singh of the Supreme Court refused to pass such directions.It clarified that the trial court's framing of charges in the case would not render Yadav's quashing petition in the High Court infructuous. "We are not passing any order. Taking note of the apprehension, we say framing of charges will not make the pending petition before the High Court infructuous," the Court said. .The Court was dealing with an application filed by Yadav to defer trial court proceedings in the case at least till after August 12, when the Delhi High Court is scheduled to hear Yadav's petition to quash the case..The land-for-jobs case involves allegations that during 2004-2009, various residents of Bihar were given jobs after they or their family members transferred their land to the names of family members of Lalu Prasad Yadav, then the Railway minister.The First Information Report (FIR) in this case was registered in 2022 by the Central Bureau of Investigation..Yadav eventually moved the Delhi High Court seeking the quashing of this FIR. He urged the High Court to stay the trial court proceedings during the pendency of this plea.On May 29, the High Court issued notice to the CBI but found no compelling reasons to stay the proceedings before the trial court.Yadav then moved the top court, arguing that the trial cannot proceed without a mandatory sanction under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act..On July 28, the Supreme Court refused to interfere with the Delhi High Court's decision not to stay the trial court proceedings.He then filed an application before the top court to defer the trial court proceedings.Yadav highlighted that the trial court had ordered him to complete his arguments on the criminal charges that could be framed against him by August 2.On the other hand, the Delhi High Court listed his petition to quash the case only on August 12. On July 24, the High Court also rejected his plea to list the case on an earlier date.The application before the top court further pointed out that Yadav has raised fundamental questions before the High Court about whether the criminal proceedings against him are sustainable at all.In this regard, it was argued that a sanction required to prosecute a public servant under Section 17A of the Corruption Act had not been obtained."The Petitioner (Yadav) will suffer severe travesty of justice, if the trial court continues to hear argument on charge despite the pendency of writ petition before the High Court, which has been kept for hearing on 12.08.2025, keeping in view of the Board of the Hon'ble High Court," Yadav's application added. .When the matter was taken up today, Yadav's counsel initially sought an adjournment since Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, who was to lead arguments in the matter, was in another court arguing a plea filed by Justice Yashwant Varma. Representing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Additional Solicitor General SV Raju said that Yadav can raise his concerns about sanction before the trial court. He added that Yadav's application must be dismissed with costs. "In trial court, discharge is going on, where he can raise this 17A question ... Cost may be imposed. Person with big pockets can make many such applications," Raju said."We are not imposing costs," the Court replied before making it clear that it is not entertaining the application.The application was filed through Advocate Mudit Gupta. Advocates Varun Jain, Navin Kumar, Akhilesh Singh, Vanika Gupta, Sumit Singh and Satish Kumar also represented Yadav.