A Delhi court on Wednesday (March 18, 2026) declined the plea of former Bihar CM Lalu Prasad Yadav seeking the production of over 1,600 documents not relied upon by the prosecution in the land-for-jobs scam case. Special Judge (PC Act) Vishal Gogne of the Rouse Avenue Courts rejected the pleas filed by Lalu Prasad Yadav and his wife Rabri Devi, observing that there is no right to obtain documents not relied on by the prosecution in the chargesheet at the current stage of the proceeding.
The court pointed out that the accused had already been provided with the list of unrelied documents and were allowed to inspect them during the investigation stage. Citing the lack of any special circumstances to warrant the production of unrelied documents, the court rejected the accused’s request. “The court does not detect any circumstances of non-ordinary nature which would justify the supplanting of a trial upon relied documents by a trial upon unrelied documents,” Judge Gogne said.
“The relied-upon documents are only 421, while the unrelied-upon documents are 1,675. The court finds the prayer for being provided with all unrelied documents to be designed to condemn the trial to a maze at the very outset, and that too when the accused have not even begun to lay out any particular defence by way of questions, suggestions or a projected defence,” he said, rejecting the plea.
Self-serving prayer of the applicant cannot be accepted: Court
The court clarified that in a criminal trial, the prosecution first leads its evidence based on relied-upon documents and that unrelied-upon documents cannot be demanded for cross-examination. “In the absence of even a fledgling defence or a minimum projection of his defence, the accused cannot be permitted to introduce wanton documents into the trial. The court does not find any prejudice to be caused if the self-serving prayer of the applicant is not accepted,” the court remarked. The judge said that allowing the production of the documents would mean to “place the cart before the horse”, and would throw the judicial process into “complete disarray”.
The applications are delaying tactics: Court
The court also dismissed the similar applications of two other accused, personal secretary (PS) of Lalu Prasad, R.K. Mahajan, seeking one unrelied document, and a former appointing authority, ex-general manager of railways, Maheep Kapoor, seeking 23 unrelied documents. Calling out the accused, the judge said that he could sense a “latent” or “underlying intent” of the applicants behind filing the plea seeking unrelied documents. He termed it a delaying tactic to drag the legal proceedings, where, after getting the said unrelied documents, applications will be filed for missing or illegal documents. “A court of trial must guard against latent motives of applicants apart from unreasonable outcomes,” the judge stated.
What is the case?
The land-for-jobs case relates to Group D appointments made in the West Central Zone of the Indian Railways in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, during Lalu Prasad’s tenure as the Union Railway Minister between 2004 and 2009. Yadav is accused of getting land parcels gifted or transferred to his family or associates at nominal prices by the recruits in the names of the RJD in return for appointments. On May 18, 2022, a case was filed against Lalu Prasad Yadav and several others, including his wife, two daughters, unidentified public officials and private persons.
On January 9, 2026, the court ordered framing of charges against RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav, his family members and others. Charges were framed against 41 accused persons, including Yadav and his family members, and 52 others were discharged. Out of the 103 accused named in the CBI chargesheet, five have passed away.
