NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court of India on Tuesday adjourned to April 22 the hearing on a plea filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation, challenging the bail granted by the Jharkhand High Court to Lalu Prasad Yadav in a case related to the Deoghar treasury.
A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and N Kotiswar Singh deferred the matter, noting that the pleadings were not complete and that some of the accused had died.
During the hearing, Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for the CBI, argued that the high court had passed an illegal order and that the sentence had been suspended in violation of law.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Yadav, submitted that some of the accused had not been served notice.
The court observed, “Both of us know what this special leave petition is. We think both of you know what the result is. We all know what the question of law is. The persons are in their 60s, 70s and 80s. The files are just languishing. We will give a date in April. Those cases in which the respondent has died, we will close them,” the bench said.
The Jharkhand High Court in July last year admitted an appeal by the CBI seeking enhancement of the sentence awarded to Yadav.
Yadav was convicted in the case related to the Deoghar treasury, which involved the alleged defalcation of Rs 89 lakh. A special CBI court had convicted him and sentenced him to undergo imprisonment for 3.5 years.
The CBI moved an appeal against the order, stating that Yadav was overall in charge of the animal husbandry department at the time. The investigation had revealed that he was allegedly aware of the defalcation in the Deoghar treasury. Despite this, the lower court awarded a sentence of 3.5 years for the offence, which carries a maximum sentence of seven years, the agency said.
Jharkhand was part of Bihar when the alleged irregularities took place.