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Saturday, May 14, 2005

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Court: Lalu's stand contradictory

Legal Correspondent

Asks Patna High Court to constitute Bench If the party had felt aggrieved, the proper course was to immediately come back to this court and get the order clarified by this court.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has deprecated the contradictory stands taken by Railway Minister Lalu Prasad before it and the Patna High Court on the issue of constitution of a Bench to hear his plea relating to the sanction accorded for his prosecution in the fodder scam case.

A three-Judge Bench, comprising Justice S.N. Variava, Justice A.R. Lakshmanan and Justice S.H. Kapadia, however, agreed that it was the prerogative of the acting Chief Justice (ACJ) of the Patna High Court to decide on the composition of the Bench. By an order on April 26, the apex court constituted a Bench comprising Justice Aftab Alam and Justice Chandramouli Prasad to hear Mr. Prasad's petition in the High Court. But he filed an application questioning the composition of the Bench and sought a personal hearing to explain his stand.

The Bench pointed out that the April 26 order was passed with the consent of counsel. After consenting and/or in any case after not objecting to it, submissions were made before the ACJ of the High Court that the apex court had no jurisdiction to constitute the Bench.

The Bench said: "We deprecate this practice of a party obtaining an order by consent and/or not objecting to an order and then making contrary submissions before another forum. If the party had felt aggrieved, the proper course was to immediately come back to this court and get the order clarified by this court."

The judges reminded Mr. Prasad that the apex court had only requested the ACJ of the High Court to constitute a Bench.

"In constituting the Bench, the parties are not to be heard. The parties have no say in such matters at this stage," the Bench clarified and asked the ACJ to set up a Bench.

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