New Delhi:  The Supreme Court today (Dec 6, 2006)dismissed the petitions filed by Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi and former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, challenging the grant of sanction to prosecute them in corruption cases.

However, in the case of former Kerala Chief Minister K Karunakaran, the apex court referred the matter to the High Court and directed that the matter be decided within three months while asking the parties to place the relevant material before it to decide whether there was any malafide intention to prosecute him in the Palmoline oil import case.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi had challenged the grant of sanction to prosecute them during the brief tenure of Nitish Kumar as chief minister of Bihar in the disproportionate assets case, an offshoot of the multi-crore fodder scam.