NEW DELHI, June 15: A day after Justice N C Kochhar took charge of the Janata Dal presidential poll, the clock was turned back when a division bench of the Delhi High Court restrained him from conducting and supervising the election till the final order on the review petitions was pronounced.

A retired judge of the Rajasthan High Court, Justice Kochhar was appointed on June 7 by Justice S N Kapoor to conduct and supervise the poll.

But Justice Cyriac Joseph and Justice Anil Dev Singh, while observing today that the matter was pending before the court and the order reserved, decided to ``stay Justice Kochhar from proceeding with the Janata Dal presidential poll till further orders.''

The division bench was acting on a batch of petitions challenging Justice Kapoor's order.

The order was passed after the judges heard the arguments of senior counsel R K Anand, who represented returning officer P K Samantaray, Laloo Prasad Yadav's counsel Rakesh Dwivedi, and A K Singh, counsel for Bihar MP, MAA Fatmi.

Reserving its order on all the three petitions, including Laloo's revision petition, the bench did not, however, mention any specific date for pronouncing the order.

Laloo's counsel gave an undertaking that his client would not do anything which would amount to interference in the election process till the judgement on the review petitions.

After today's court order there was considerable speculation within the Dal that the party presidential poll was all set to be deferred again. It was initially scheduled to be held on June 10, but was postponed till June 18 by Justice S N Kapoor.

The Election Commission had on Friday submitted before the division bench that it would not have any objection if a new date was fixed for holding the election.

Today's court order was welcomed by both Laloo Prasad and his challenger Sharad Yadav. Speaking in Jaipur, Laloo Prasad described the order as a ``just direction''.

Even as Laloo was touring the country to drum up support for his candidature, there was trouble brewing back home. In Patna today, several dissidents, including three sacked ministers and former Assembly Speaker Ghulam Sarvar, reiterated their demand that Laloo should withdraw from the election.

They claimed that Laloo had already ``conceded defeat to Sharad Yadav and was now trying to extend the deadline for holding the election.''

But Laloo remained defiant. He said his detractors were ``a handful of people, sitting in Delhi with no base, were trying to build sand castles'' by opposing him. ``They will never succeed,'' he maintained.

Laloo also alleged that the lists of delegates eligible for voting in the organisational election for the party president were ``fake'' in most of the states.

``If any election is conducted on the basis of a fake list in any state, we won't accept it,'' he said.

Yadav said he was visiting various states not for seeking votes, but to ascertain first-hand the forgery committed by certain leaders in the membership drive and gauge the hurt feelings of the common workers.

``Janata Dal is ours. We won't allow it to break. But we would also not allow forgery and deceit in the party. Even if I am alone I will fight till the last and win because truth is with me,'' he said.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.