Delhi court deplores plea to defer hearing in land-for-jobs case

New Delhi, Aug 11 (PTI) A Delhi court on Monday "severely deprecated" the insistence to adjourn the hearing on charges in the alleged land-for-jobs scam case against former railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and others.
     Special Judge Vishal Gogne on August 8 rejected the plea of the accused's counsel to treat a letter dated June 27, 2022, to the investigating officer in case as a confessional statement.
     On Monday, the accused's counsel sought an adjournment, saying a plea was filed in the Delhi High Court against the present court's order passed on August 8, and it was likely to be listed on August 12.
     Judge Gogne observed the plea to be the continuation of the previous "intransigent assertion" that arguments on charge should not be led without an order from the court on the previous application.
     "The court would severely deprecate not only the attempt at handholding of the court but also the effort to couch one strand of the arguments on charge as an application and then seek premature adjudication of the same," the court added.
     He said the application for adjournment laid "bare the conscious effort to create an off-ramp for the proceedings by raising selective issues".
     While it was the inherent right of any party to move an application before any judicial forum, the court said, the present insistence by accused's counsel on adjournment and the refusal to advance arguments on charges sought "to control the flow and composite arguments on charge which had been completed for 68 accused persons out of 99 accused".
     Of the 103 accused persons in the case, four died.
     The judge went on to pose a question to an accused who appeared virtually on whether the application was within his cognisance and understanding.
     "Accused 20 (school principal) has replied in the affirmative. The court thus concludes that the present application is a conscious effort of the accused himself to delay proceedings by instructing his counsel to refrain from leading arguments on charge," the court said.
     The order continued, "In the interest of fairness and to ensure that no modicum of legal strategy ends up defeating the rights of the accused himself, that the Accused 20 shall be at liberty to file written submissions on charge within one week."
     The prosecution alleged appointments in Group-D category of West Central Zone of the Railways based in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, made during Lalu Prasad's tenure as the railway minister from 2004 to 2009 in return for land parcels gifted or transferred by the recruits in the name of the RJD supremo's family or associates.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)