A three-judge Bench comprising Justice M K Mukherjee, Justice S P Kurdukar and Justice K T Thomas, however, stayed their arrest till October 28.

The stay of arrest and extension to surrender before the special court till October 28 was granted in view of the closure of the courts in Bihar for Durga Puja and Diwali.

While asking them to surrender before the special court on October 28, the apex court directed that the special judge should consider their bail petitions on merit.

Besides, Yadav and Mishra, the other accused who had moved the petitions included former Union Minister Chandra Deo Prasad Verma, former Bihar Ministers Bhola Ram Toofani and Vidya Sagar Nishad, RJD MLA RK Rana, former Animal Husbandry Regional Director S B Sinha and two others.

The special court on July two while taking cognisance of fourth CBI chargesheet against Yadav in the fodder scam had directed the RJD president to surrender before it on or before July 27.

The special court, which had issued arrest warrants against Mishra and Rana had also directed Verma, Toofani and Nishad to surrender before it within a week.

Earlier, senior advocate Rajinder Singh said Yadav was apprehending arrest by the CBI despite anticipatory bail granted to him by the Patna High Court.

He said the anticipatory bail was granted by the High Court before filing of the chargesheet in the fodder scam case No-RC 64 on July 28, 1997.

Singh questioned the special judge taking cognisance of the chargesheet contending that the paper filed by CBI before the special court could not be described a chargesheet as it was only a "single sheet paper".

Singh said on surrender before the special court his client could be arresteddespite the anticipatory bail.

He said the allegations in the chargesheet filed on July 28 were not different than the earlier chargesheets as they alleged the similar charges of a "conspiracy" and "giving protection" to certain officials involved in the scam.