A division bench comprising acting Chief Justice Narayan Roy and Justice Madhvendra Saran issued the directive while hearing a PIL of the Patna Citizens Forum. The court directed the state to give the status report in four weeks' time.
BSEB matter: A single bench presided by Justice Ramesh Kumar Datta on Tuesday directed the state government to submit a reply stating reasons behind the dearth of staff in the state vigilance bureau which had caused much delay in investigating the irregularities in purchases in the Bihar State Electricity Board in the mid-nineties.

The order was passed during hearing of a writ petition which raised the issue of illegal purchases in the BSEB to the tune of crores of rupees.

On Tuesday, the state vigilance bureau counsel submitted that the investigation into irregularities in purchases in BSEB was started in 1998 and the FIR was registered in 2004. But further investigation was delayed due to the dearth of staff in the vigilance bureau, the counsel added. The court directed the state government to reply in three weeks' time.

Criminal appeal: A division bench comprising Justice Ghanshyam Prasad and Justice Shyam Kishore Sharma on Tuesday adjourned the hearing of the criminal appeal and bail plea of Harendra Prasad Sahi, who challenged the order of a sessions court of Patna for sentencing him life imprisonment in the case of murder of the Gopalganj district magistrate, G Krishnaiyya.

The court directed the high court registry to put up the case of the appellant, Harendra Prasad Sahi, for hearing by placing the records of the criminal appeals of the former Vaishali MP, Lovely Anand, and the Lalganj MLA, Munna Shukla, who were earlier granted bail in the same case and their criminal appeals against the sentence were admitted by the high court.

It may be recalled that Lovely Anand and Munna Shukla were sentenced life imprisonment by a sessions court of Patna against which they had moved the criminal appeals with their bail plea before the high court.