The Supreme Court on Friday declined to entertain RJD strongman Lalu Prasad's plea for staying the trial against him in the alleged "land-for-jobs" scandal during his tenure as the Union railway minister between 2004 and 2009.

The case was filed against him by the CBI in 2022 under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

A bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and N. Kotiswar Singh, however, gave relief to Lalu by granting an exemption from his personal appearance in the special CBI court, as it asked the RJD chief to wait for the outcome of the verdict in Delhi High Court where he had challenged the FIR and the subsequent trial proceedings.

"We will not stay the high court order. This is a small issue, but what we can do is that we will dispense with his personal appearance," the bench orally told senior advocate Kapil Sibal during a hearing.

The top court was dealing with Lalu's appeal, challenging a May 29 interim order of Delhi High Court, which had declined to quash the FIR or stay the trial proceedings and had posted the matter for hearing in August. Aggrieved by the high court's refusal to stay the trial, Lalu had filed the present appeal.

Sibal told the bench that the entire investigation was illegal and mala fide, as no sanction was obtained from the government by the CBI for Lalu's prosecution as mandated by Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act.

According to Section 17A under the PC Act, which was brought through an amendment made in 2018, the CBI or other authorities must mandatorily seek the prior permission of the central government or state government before prosecuting a public servant.

The senior counsel argued that in the case of Lalu, no such sanction was obtained by the CBI. Additional solicitor-general S.V. Raju, appearing for the CBI, however, countered the arguments to submit that no sanction was required in the case as the offence was related to the period between 2004 and 2009, whereas Section 17A came into force only in 2018.