Tuesday, September 13 2005 14:39 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today (Sept 13, 2005) turned down a request seeking deferment of hearing on a PIL against Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi accusing the Central Board for Direct Taxes (CBDT) of not filing appeal against quashing of IT cases against the duo.

When the request for deferment was made by Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam on behalf of Solicitor General G E Vahanvati, a three-judge Bench headed by Justice S N Variava said it was not possible to change the date of scheduled hearing from September 20.

"The Chief Justice has constituted the special Bench and the date of hearing could not be changed," Justice Variava said.

Subramniam put the request before the Bench on the ground that Vahanvati would have to appear on September 20 before a constitution Bench, hearing petitions filed by former MLAs of National Democratic Alliance (NDA) challenging the dissolution of Bihar Assembly. He wanted the petition be heard on October four.

The Bench said in that case the Government has to make alternative arrangements.

The PIL filed by Janata Dal - United (JD-U) leader Rajiv Ranjan Singh 'Lallan' and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sushil Modi had accused Prasad of interfering in the ongoing trial of multi-crore fodder scam cases while accusing the Government of not pursuing the income tax cases due to his position in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government.

An Income Tax Appellate Tribunal had quashed the tax demands made by the Department against Prasad and his wife, running to lakhs of rupees but the CBDT did not give clearance for filing of appeals against the Tribunal order.