SC refuses to cancel Lalu's bail

RJD chief and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi got a three-fold relief today when the Supreme Court declined to cancel the bail granted to them in a disproportionate assets case and also dismissed two PILs seeking a change of the special judge trying the case in Patna.

However, the three-judge bench of the court was split 2:1, with Justice S H Kapadia giving a separate dissenting judgment allowing the appeals. The PILs were moved by Lalu's political opponents ""- senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi and JD(U) leader Rajeev Ranjan Singh "Lallan".

Justice Balakrishnan wrote there was no irregularity in the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal order.

He also saw no illegality in the appointment of Additional District Judge Munnilal Paswan as the special judge to try the case. Allegations levelled against Paswan were not true, the judge said.

Saying that the matter was under the jurisdiction of the high court, Justice Balakrishnan added: "This question of appointment of the judge cannot be gone into by this court."

He further declined the prayer that the trial should be conducted by the prosecutor who had been associated with the case for a decade since it started.

While Justice Lakshmanan concurred with Justice Balakrishnan, Justice Kapadia said the I-T department should have filed an appeal against the appellate tribunal order.

According to him, the procedure adopted for the appointment of Judge Munni Lal Paswan as special judge to try disproportionate assets case was not proper.