Senior advocate and former law minister H R Bhardwaj and R K Anand told Special Judge Ajit Bharihoke that for trial under Section 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) which deals with the abetment of the alleged crime, prior sanction for the MPs was mandatory.

They said the Constitution bench of the Supreme Court, in its verdict in the present case, had said there should have been a sanction for prosecution of the MPs and the chairperson of the House (Parliament and Assemblies) would be appropriate authorities to grant sanction.

Anand said the three JMM leaders - Shibu Soren, Suraj Mandal and Simon Marandi, who were absolved of the "bribery" charges as per the Apex Court ruling, could not be tried bythis court for the alleged offence of "fabrication" of evidence because this fell under the jurisdiction of a magistrate.

After discharging six former MPs from the case, the court is now holding trial against Rao, former union ministers Capt Satish Sharma, Buta Singh and Ajit Singh, former chief ministers of Haryana and Karnatka, Bhajan Lal and Veerappa Moily respectively, former Karnataka ministers Rama Linga Reddy and H M Revanna and Rajya Sabha MP Rajeshwar Rao.

According to the Criminal Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Rao and the eight others had allegedly conspired to bribe some MPs to overcome a possible defeat in the Lok Sabha during the July 1993 no-confidence motion.

The court had on June 4 discharged six former MPs - Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav, Roshan Lal, Raja Abhey Pratap Singh, Anadi Charan Das, Ram Sharan Yadav and Hazi Ghulam Mohammed - in view of the Supreme Court ruling that they were immune from prosecution under Article 105 (2) of the Constitution dealing with privileges of MPs.

Thecourt had also directed that the case against two Karnataka liquor barons M Thimme Gowda and D K Adikeshavulu, who had allegedly arranged the bribe money, would continue.