NEW DELHI, Nov 7 — The Delhi High Court today suspended the three-year jail sentence of former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and his Cabinet colleague, Mr Buta Singh, in the JMM MPs bribery case, pending disposal of their appeal, despite strong opposition from the CBI.

CBI counsel A.K. Dutt strongly opposed the suspension of the sentence on the ground that the Supreme Court in a case of conviction under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) had ruled that “the moral conduct of the convicts has to be taken into consideration” because such cases had far-reaching implications on public morality.

Rejecting CBI arguments, the high court judge, Mr Justice R.S. Sodhi, said the court was not suspending the conviction but only the sentence.

“What is the justification in incarcerating them till their appeals are disposed of. How does it adversely affect the public morality if they will not be found guilty,” Mr Justice Sodhi asked.

The trial court, while convicting Mr Rao and Mr Buta Singh for the criminal conspiracy and under various provisions of the PCA for bribing four former JMM MPs to secure their support to the Congress government during July 1993 no-confidence motion, had sentenced them to three-year rigorous imprisonment.

The trial judge, however, had suspended the sentence till tomorrow to enable them to file appeals in the high court. He had also granted them interim bail till November 8.

Mr Justice Sodhi also extended the bail granted to Mr Rao and Mr Buta Singh by the trial court after pronouncement of the sentence on October 13 till their appeal petitions were disposed of.

The high court asked Mr Rao and Mr Buta Singh’s counsel to mention the matter before it by the end of December so that it could fix a date for hearing arguments on the appeals.

The former Prime Minister and Mr Buta Singh had challenged their conviction on the grounds that the trial judge had “erred” in adducing the evidence against them.

Their counsel, Mr R.K. Anand and Mr Rajinder Singh, said there was no evidence against the two except a statement by the approver Mr Shailendra Mahato, one of the four JMM MPs who were allegedly bribed.

Mr Anand said it was a short matter and would not need long arguments as Mr Rao was challenging the trial court order to the extent that it had taken Mr Mahato’s statement as evidence.

Mr Anand during arguments on October 24, when the appeal was admitted for hearing by the court, had contended that Mr Mahato was granted pardon by the trial court.

He said, Mr Mahato, who was an MP, could not be prosecuted in view of the immunity enjoyed by him under Article 105 of the Constitution and there was no question of granting him pardon. “Hence he could not be treated an approver,” Mr Anand had argued.