In a reprieve to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Patna High Court on Monday stayed the summons issued against him by a subordinate court in connection with the murder of a Congress worker over 18 years ago.
Justice Sima Ali Khan ordered stay on the summons against Kumar issued by a Barh court on August 31 on a writ petition filed by Yogendra Prasad Yadav, already charge-sheeted in the case, seeking stay on the proceedings of Barh court saying it was violative of an earlier order of the High Court in this connection.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Ranjan Kumar had passed the order asking Mr. Kumar and and Dularchand Yadav to appear before him on September 9 following a petition filed by Ashok Singh, a relative of Congress activist Sitaram Singh who was killed in firing at a polling booth at Barh during the Lok Sabha election on November 16, 1991.
Patna High Court had, however, on April 22, 2009 stayed the proceedings in the court of the ACJM in connection with the case till pendency of hearing on Yadav’s petition challenging the lower court’s move to take cognisance of the charges.
Hearing Yadav’s petition seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against the Barh Court for allegedly flouting the HC order, Khan referred the petition to the Chief Justice with a request to transfer the matter to the same bench which had earlier heard the case.
