Delhi high court dismisses Lalu Yadav’s plea seeking stay in land-for-jobs scam case | India News

NEW DELHI: Delhi high court on Saturday dismissed the plea filed by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief and former railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav seeking to stay trial court proceedings in the alleged ‘land-for-jobs’ corruption case. The case, investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), centres on accusations that Yadav granted railway jobs in trade for land parcels, which had been transferred to his household or associates throughout his tenure from 2004 to 2009.Yadav had approached the high court by way of senior advocate Kapil Sibal, arguing that the CBI’s investigation and subsequent costs had been invalid because of the absence of obligatory prior sanction beneath Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act. He claimed this sanction was required earlier than any inquiry or investigation might legally proceed towards a public servant and famous that whereas sanction was obtained for others concerned, it was not granted in his case. The plea sought to quash the FIR and postpone cost framing, which was scheduled to start on 2 June.The CBI opposed the petition, sustaining that sanction beneath Section 19 had been duly secured and that Section 17A was not relevant. It additionally stated that the difficulty of obligatory sanction is at present pending earlier than a bigger bench of the Supreme Court.The allegations stay centred on the manipulation of railway Group-D appointments in trade for land, with a number of chargesheets filed since 2022.