Fodder Scam | Supreme Court To Hear CBI's Appeal Against Suspension Of Lalu Prasad Yadav's Sentence On April 22

The Supreme Court will hear in April a batch of appeals against the order of the Jharkhand High Court suspending the sentence of former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and other convicts in the fodder scam case.

A bench of Justice MM Sundresh and Justice N Kotiswar Singh kept the matters for final disposal on April 22, 2026.

Additional Solicitor General SV Raju submitted that the case involves a question of law and the High Court violated settled principles governing post-conviction suspension of sentence. He argued that the sentence could not have been suspended and Lalu Yadav and other accused persons were illegally out.

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal for Yadav opposed the urgency, highlighting that in connected matters some accused had not been served and some had not filed replies.

Justice Sundresh highlighted that the persons concerned were in their 60s, 70s and late 80s, and listed the matter in April.

“We think both of you know what the result is. You do your job, let us do our job. We can fix a date for the appeal to be disposed of. We also know what the question of law is. Nothing…The persons are in their 60s, 70s, and late 80s now. Their sentence is suspended”, he said.

The Court also said that the cases where a respondent/accused had died would be closed.

The fodder scam matter consists of several cases relating to withdrawals amounting to around ₹950 crore from the state treasury between 1992 and 1995, when Yadav served as the chief minister of undivided Bihar and was also in charge of the departments of animal husbandry and finance.

During this time, officials of the state animal husbandry department have been accused of withdrawing money against fake bills of fodder, medicine and so on. He was convicted in the fodder scam cases pertaining to fraudulent withdrawal of money from Deoghar, Dumka and Chaibasa treasuries, which fall in present day Jharkhand.

In April 2021, the Jharkhand High Court granted bail to Yadav in a case relating to a fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 3.13 crores from Dumka treasury on the ground that he has served half of his prison term.

In 2019, he was granted bail in the Deoghar treasury matter. He was also granted bail in the Chaibasa Treasury matter in October 2020 by the Jharkhand High Court on the ground that he had undergone half of the sentence imposed on him.

Case no. – SLP(Crl) No. 1550/2020

Case Title – State of Jharkhand v. Lalu Prasad @ Lalu Prasad Yadav