SC agrees with Lalu on Bench formation

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad today stood vindicated as the Supreme Court accepted his plea that it could not have decided the composition of a Patna High Court Bench for hearing his petition challenging grant of sanction for his prosecution in a disproportionate assets case.

"We agree with the contention of Prasad," said an apex court Bench comprising Justice SN Variava, Justice AR Lakshmanan and Justice SH Kapadia, which had on April 26 requested the acting chief justice of the Patna High Court to constitute a Bench comprising Justice Aftab Alam and Justice Chandramouli Prasad for disposal of Prasad's appeal within a month.

This had evoked strong reaction from the acting chief justice of the high court as well as the railway minister. While the acting chief justice adjourned the matter on the judicial side without constituting the Bench, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief filed an application making no bones about his reservations against Justice Prasad.

The Bench, after reading the 10-page order of May 6, passed by the acting chief justice of the high court, said it agreed with Prasad's contention before the high court that the prerogative of constituting the Bench rested with the acting chief justice and not the apex court.

"Now, let the chief justice set a Bench. We have no problem. We are not interested in one or the other judge. If Prasad feels we should not do it, we will not do it. Only thing is that instead of advancing detail arguments before the high court, he should have told us about it," it said.

The inclusion of Justice Prasad's name in the composition of the high court Bench had prompted Prasad to file an application seeking permission of the apex court to "communicate" with it "in confidence" about his apprehensions about the judge.

The Bench today said it agreed with the contention of Prasad advanced before the high court but felt that "it would have been a lot better if Prasad had come to the apex court directly."

The court passed this order in a petition filed by Janata Dal (U) leader RR Singh "Lallan" and BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi seeking cancellation of Prasad's bail in fodder scam cases alleging that he was interfering with trial proceedings in the fodder scam and other cases pending against him.

Pursuant to the court directive of April 26, the president of the income-tax appellate authority has filed details of the orders passed by a special Bench, which in a matter of 10 days disposed of over 130 cases including quashing nearly 25 income tax demands against Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi.

The court had taken exception to the manner in which Additional Solicitor-General Mohan Parasarn had expressed the opinion that no appeal need be filed against the quashing of the it cases against Prasad.

Solicitor-General GE Vahanvati said he would take some more time to go through the papers and opinions in the case before forming his own. The Bench adjourned the case till July 25.