The Delhi High Court has dismissed a petition filed by Rashtriya Janata Dal leader and former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav seeking to stay proceedings in a trial court in connection with a money-laundering case linked to the alleged land-for-jobs scam.

Yadav had filed a petition in the High Court seeking to quash the first information report filed against him by the Central Bureau of Investigation in 2022. In addition, he had also sought a stay on the proceedings in the matter in the trial court while the petition was pending.

In an order issued on May 29, Justice Ravinder Dudeja said that he found no compelling reasons to stay the proceedings in the trial court.

“The present matter is stated to be listed before the learned special judge for arguments on charge,” the order said. “Notwithstanding, the pendency of the present petition, petitioner would be at liberty to urge all his contentions before the learned trial court at the stage of consideration of charge.”

Dudeja said that the trial proceedings would be “an added opportunity” for Yadav to “put forth his point and get the same adjudicated”.

In an earlier submission, advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Yadav, had told the High Court that the CBI did not to obtain mandatory prosecution sanction under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act against Yadav before registering the FIR.

This section stipulates that no investigation can be conducted by a police officer into an offence alleged to have been committed by a public servant under the Act without prior approval from an appropriate authority.

Sibal also said that the offences that Yadav were accused of were allegedly committed between 2004 and 2009. However, the FIR was lodged only in 2022 after a delay of almost 14 years, he pointed out.

Sibal also said that the matter was listed before the Rouse Avenue Courts on the framing of charges on June 2. He added that if the charges were framed, then the present petition would lose its purpose.

Senior Public Prosecutor DP Singh, on the other hand, told the High Court that the question on the applicability of Section 17A was under consideration before a larger bench of the Supreme Court.

Yadav could also make similar submissions before the trial court at the stage of the framing of charges, Singh added.

The CBI has named 78 accused persons in the case, including 30 government officials. The case centres on allegations that between 2004 and 2009, when Yadav was the Union railway minister, land was illegally acquired at reduced prices in exchange for appointments to Group-D positions in the Indian Railways.

The agency alleges that land parcels were transferred to Yadav’s family members, including wife Rabri Devi and daughters Misa Bharti and Hema Yadav, at prices significantly below the market value.