In a significant judgement, the Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that there was no requirement of prior sanction for prosecution of public servants, including chief ministers and ministers, in corruption cases.

The court on Wednesday dismissed petitions filed by Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, 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 [Images] 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.

Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu and his wife Rabri 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.

While discussing the pleas of Badal, his son Sukhbir Singh Badal and former Punjab deputy chief minister Rajender Kaur Bhattal, a Bench comprising Justice Arijit Parsayat and Justice S H Kapadia said the trial will continue against them.

The court said the allegation that the chargesheet against them was fake, was "untenable".

In the case of Karunakaran, the court said a special feature needed to be considered. On November 24, 2005, the chief secretary of Kerala had filed an affidavit seeking to withdraw the prosecution.

However, when the new government came, the state filed an affidavit deciding to go ahead with the prosecution of Karunakaran in the oil import case.

The bench said since this aspect was not before the high court, "we permit the party to place the material before it to decide on the plea of malafide within three months" and disposed off his petition.

With UNI inputs