New Delhi, Jul 25 (PTI) The Delhi High Court has dismissed former Bihar chief minister and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav’s application to advance his plea to quash the FIR in the CBI’s land-for-jobs case.
Justices Ravinder Dedeja on July 24 said the scheduled date of hearing on August 12 was “not very long”.
Yadav moved court, claiming the trial court fixed arguments on charges against him and his family members — wife Rabri Devi, sons Tejashwi Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav, and daughters Misha Bharti and Hema Yadav — from July 26 to August 2.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Yadav, said if the trial court heard the arguments on charge before the high court decided the present application, the plea in the high court would be infructuous.
The judge dismissed the application, noting an application to stay the trial court proceedings had already been dismissed by the high court and the Supreme Court also refused to interfere with that order.
“Considering the fact that the stay application has already been dismissed by this court by order dated May 29, 2025 and the said order has not been interfered by the Supreme Court, as also bearing in mind the status of the board of this court and the fact that date already fixed, i.e., August 12, 2025 is not very long, application for preponment of hearing is dismissed,” the judge said.
The Supreme Court on July 18 refused to stay the trial court proceedings.
On May 29, the high court said there were no compelling reason to stay the proceedings.
The high court issued notice to the CBI on Yadav’s plea for quashing of the agency FIR and posted the hearing on August 12.
The case is related to Group D appointments made in the West Central Zone of the Indian Railways based in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, during Lalu Prasad’s tenure as the railway minister between 2004 and 2009, allegedly in return for land parcels gifted or transferred by the recruits in the name of the RJD supremo’s family or associates.
In his petition in the high court, Prasad sought the quashing of the FIR and three chargesheets filed in 2022, 2023 and 2024, and the subsequent orders of cognisance.
The case was registered on May 18, 2022, against Yadav and others, including his wife, two daughters, unidentified public officials and private persons.
The former chief minister said the FIR was lodged in 2022 — after an almost 14-year delay — despite the CBI’s initial enquiries and investigations being closed after filing of closure report before the competent court.
“Initiation of the fresh investigation in the concealment of the previous investigations and its closure reports is nothing but an abuse of the process of law,” it said.
The petitioner argued he was being made to suffer through an “illegal, motivated investigation” in violation of his fundamental right to a fair investigation.
Yadav called it a scenario of “regime revenge and political vendetta” as the initiation of investigation without such approval vitiated the entire proceedings since inception with the being a “jurisdictional error”. PTI UK UK AMK AMK
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