Orders on SEBI’s plea deferred

Orders on SEBI’s application to record the statements of the former Satyam chairman, Ramalinga Raju, and his brother Rama Raju were postponed by the Sixth Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate D. Ramakrishna, to January 22. The judge also posted to the same date hearing on the bail application by the Raju brothers and the former Chief Financial Officer, Srinivas Vadlamani. The trio suffered another setback when the and hra Pradesh High Court dismissed their ‘lunch motion’ opposing police custody for them. On the second day of interrogation, CID police tried to identify people in the company allegedly in the know of the scam. The term "lunch motion" in a report (January 20, 2009) led to a query. TheLegal Correspondent clarifies that whenever a matter is filed and itrequires urgent hearing, the lawyer concerned will make a mention before theChief Justice, i.e. the First Bench of the High Court on the need for earlylisting. This is called "lunch motion". It can be done either in the morningbefore the commencement of the day's hearing or in the afternoon immediatelyafter lunch. The First Bench will then fix a date for hearing of the case.In the Supreme Court, and every day, there is regular mentioning for earlylisting in the afternoon, and cases are presented for mentioning even as theregular date of hearing is given on the file. But there is no such practicein High Courts.