``Do not bring any witness pertaining to alleged bribe takers without prior permission of the court,'' special judge Ajit Bharihoke observed when a defence counsel raised objection during recent recording of evidence of a Congress MP from Maharashtra, Ashok Deshmukh.

According to the prosecution, Deshmukh's statements, given to CBI earlier, had a referrence to the accused former JMM MPs Shibu Soren, Sailendra Mahato, Simon Marandi and Suraj Mandal and Rajya Sabha MP V Rajeshwara Rao. However, Mahato had been granted pardon by the court after turning approver in the case.

The defence counsel opposed CBI's questioning of Deshmukh relating to his statements having a reference to Mahato, who was also in the category of the alleged bribetakers.

Bharihoke said, ``his (Deshmukh) statements relate to approver Shailendra Mahato who had allegedly taken bribe to vote against no-confidence motion. Therefore, I deem it proper that statement of this witness may be recorded after the special leave petition in the Supreme Court is disposed off.''The Apex Court had, on April 17 last, ruled that the accused MPs, who had allegedly received bribe but voted in Parliament, were immune from prosecution under clause (2) of Article 105 of the Constitution.

The other alleged bribe takers in the case are former Union Minister Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav, former MPs Roshan Lal, Ram Saran Yadav, Anadi Charan Das, Abhey Pratap Singh and Hazi Ghulam Mohammad.A constitution bench of the Supreme Court had ruled that according to Article 105 (2) of the Constitution, a member of Parliament is protected ``against proceedings in court that relates or concern or have a connection or nexus with anything said or a vote given by him in Parliament''.

The accused in the casehad moved the SC challeging the order of the lower court framing charges against them and the apex court had referred the matter to a constitution bench on the question of `immunity'.