VANCOUVER - A B.C. court has ordered the provincial government to turn over a potential trover of internal emails that could relate to the legislature raid case.

The B.C. Supreme Court judge hearing the case Tuesday ordered the government to turn over MLA emails and other communications related to the controversial $1-billion sale of BC Rail to CN Rail in 2003.

Justice Elizabeth Bennett will review the material to decide what's relevant to the corruption trial of three former government workers in relation to the sale, a case which now has dragged on for almost six years without going to trial.

Bennett herself has been promoted to the B.C. Court of Appeal but the defence is demanding she stay on because she's issued a plethora of pre-trial rulings in the complex case. She's slated to hear their arguments later this month.

Her ruling Tuesday covered communications related to the BC Rail deal sent or received by Liberal legislature members and some ministers, including Premier Gordon Campbell, via their MLA email accounts. Those accounts are separate from government email accounts.

There's another application before the court for disclosure of emails involving cabinet ministers through their executive council accounts.

The executive council's lawyer, George Copley, has suggested those emails may no longer exist and Bennett has given him until late August to report back on their status.

In her judgment Tuesday, Bennett dismissed some elements of the defence application, including records of public opinion polling and communications strategies regarding BC Rail, as no more than a "fishing expedition."

She also limited the time frame to a three-year period beginning in January 2002 and ending in December 2004. The defence had asked for everything from June 2001 to the present.

"Overall, the defence is pleased," said Michael Bolton, who represents accused Dave Basi, a former aide to then-finance minister Gary Collins.

Bolton said it's not clear how much correspondence there will be.

Many of the MLAs covered under Bennett's ruling were members of the Liberals' northern caucus, whose ridings were directly affected by what happened to BC Rail. A couple have volunteered to disclose their communications.

Bennett ruled that the premier's MLA account can only be mined for emails related to the privatization.

Police made the unprecedented raid on the B.C. legislature cabinet offices on Dec. 28, 2003, carting away boxes of documents and computers from cabinet offices.

Basi and Bobby Virk, an assistant to then-transportation minister Judith Reid, were charged with multiple counts of fraud, breach of trust and accepting benefits in relation to the rail sale.

It's alleged they received things such as trips and tickets to hockey and football games from lobbyists working for competing bidder OmniTrax, in exchange for passing on secret cabinet documents.

Basi's cousin Aneal Basi, a government communications officer, is accused of money laundering.

The defence has spent years trying to force disclosure of material it claims will show Virk and Dave Basi were small players in a larger scandal.

Their lawyers argue Virk and Basi, both longtime Liberal party operatives, were working under instructions to keep OmniTrax interested to create the appearance of a competitive bidding process when CN was already the preferred buyer for BC Rail.

Police have said no politicians are suspected of wrongdoing.

Participants in the case are also awaiting a Supreme Court of Canada ruling on whether the defence can learn the name of a confidential police informant.

No trial date has been scheduled, although Bolton said all the lawyers have cleared their calendars for the fall.