Patna high court pulls up BJP, Samata Party for contempt petition

The Patna high court on Monday reprimanded counsel for the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samata Party asking them not to use the court as a political platform. The judges further observed that the contempt petitions were interlocutory, did not require urgent hearing and fixed the next hearing for August 14.

Justices S J Mukhopadhyaya and S N Jha ruled that the contempt petitions -- filed separately by the BJP and Samata Party against senior state government officials for not complying with the arrest warrant issued against former Bihar chief minister Laloo Prasad Yadav -- to be interlocutory.

The judges said they had already issued notices to the erring officers and there was no urgency to pass any interim order on the petitions.

As soon as the court assembled, BJP counsel Ravinshankar Prasad urged the judges to hear the matter. To which the judges said the contempt matter was between the court and the government. The judges said the court had already issued notice so there was no question of parallel proceedings.

Later, Prasad told the court that the show cause notices had been served on the officers over the notice initiated on the report of the district judge, Patna, regarding the contempt of court and the abusive language used by some people during Laloo Prasad Yadav's surrender in connection with the fodder scam.

Prasad wondered why the CBI did not earlier highlight the non-co-operation by state government officials in arresting Laloo Yadav. The BJP counsel also alleged that the Centre was planning to transfer CBI Joint Director U N Biswas who was investigating the fodder scam.

Justice Mukhopadhaya asked the counsel whether he had found out about Biswas's possible transfer through the newspapers and asked Prasad not to make the proceedings a political issue.

Later, the Samata Party counsel urged the judges to issue direction to the CBI to come to the court with sufficient documents. However, the judge said, "I will not ask the CBI to open its cards in court."

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