PATNA, May 22: The Patna High Court today pulled up the CBI for not taking any action against the accused persons in a particular conspiracy angle case of the fodder scam in which the agency has sought gubernatorial sanction to prosecute Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav and others.

``We want to know why different yardsticks are being adopted in respect of different accused in the scam,'' a division bench comprising Justice S J Mukhopadhyay and Justice S N Jha said.

``You (CBI) have taken into custody several others and searched their houses and establishments in cases other than this (rc/20(a)96) much before submission of chargesheets, but you have not taken any action so far in this particular case,'' the judges said.

``Such an action is in contravention of Article 14 of the Indian Constitution which guarantees equality before law'', they said.

The judges sought an explanation from the CBI on the matter by Friday. On a prayer by the petitioners for passing an order to Governor A R Kidwai to give permission for the prosecution of the chief minister, two Bihar ministers -- Bholaram Toofani and Vidyasagar Nishad and former chief minister Jagannath Mishra, the court said it would take up the issue after the summer vacation. On the time-frame sought by the court for prosecution of the bureaucrats allegedly involved in the fodder scam, additional solicitor general K N Bhatt appearing on behalf of the Union of India tried to impress upon the court that the Central Government would give its nod for the prosecution ``expeditiously''. ``The Central Government received the proposal for prosecution only yesterday and we are not in a position to spell out a time-frame at the moment,'' Bhatt said.

Replying to a query, the additional solicitor general said the Central and State governments were the only two authorities which could give sanction for the prosecution of the bureaucrats.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.