The Supreme Court on Monday (April 13, 2026) allowed Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief and former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad to raise his plea of lack of prior sanction for investigation launched against him in the land-for-jobs scam case probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) during trial.
A Bench headed by Justice M.M. Sundresh did not intervene to grant Mr. Prasad interim relief in the form of stay of the trial, but “protected” from appearing in person at the trial.
The apex court said legal issues as to whether Section 17A had been necessary for the CBI before maunching into the probe would be based on the facts of the case, the court said, leaving it for Mr. Prasad’s lawyers take it up as a ground of defence in the trial proceedings.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal said the chargesheet was filed in the case in 2022.
“The charge sheet was filed in 2022 when the case had been closed nine years ago in 2013. The CBI wakes up nine years later and files the chargesheet on the same facts. The final chargesheet was filed in February 2025. We challenged it immediately in March 2025. There was no delay from our side,” Mr. Sibal said.
