HC adjourns hearing of petition against Lalu-Rabri in DA case

Patna, Nov 20 (UNI) Patna High Court today adjourned till tomorrow the hearing for admission of a petition filed by Bihar government challenging the acquittal of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi from a lower court here in connection with a disproportionate asset(DA)case on December 18 last year.

Justice R K Dutta adjourned the hearing for the day and directed the counsel of the Bihar government to inform the court tomorrow about the availability of the advocates on certain dates of the Supreme Court, who are supposed to represent the state government during hearing for admission of the petition.

The Court's directive came after submission of the state government counsel Akhileshwar Prasad Singh urging the bench to fix December 14 as the date for hearing of the petition at admission stage. The Court observed that December 15 and 16, being holidays, hearing would not be possible on day-to-day basis and the vailability of the Supreme Court advocates representing the parties involved was also uncertain.

Earlier, the Court had held that petition filed by the Bihar government in this regard was maintainable setting aside another petition filed by RJD Chief and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and his wife and former chief minister Rabri Devi questioning the maintainability of the state government's petition.

After the Patna High Court's ruling on confirming the maintainability of the state government's petition, the Lalu-Rabri duo had approached the Supreme Court for relief, but it was turned down there with the observation that the said petition had not yet been admitted in the High Court and only its maintainability was decided.

On December 18, 2006, the special CBI court of Patna had acquitted the Lalu-Rabri duo in connection with DA case saying the evidences produced by the prosecution, were not enough to sentence them in this connection. Later, early this year, the Bihar government had filed a petition in Patna High Court challenging the acquittal of the Lalu-Rabri duo in the case.

UNI