Thomas, J. - (1.) Leave granted.
(2.) The question is short but the range of consideration got widened much. Answer to the question may be of advantage to some accused and disadvantage to some other accused who are involved in a large number of criminal cases which are compendiously styled with the sobriquet "Bihar Fodder Scam Cases". These cases related to a series of orchestrated fraudulent acts by which a staggeringly huge amount of public money was plundered or looted after creating fake bill and other false documents for the said purpose, with the active participation or connivance of several high ups in the administration of the State. Though it is unnecessary now to mention the whopping sum so plundered in each case, we are told that the aggregate of them exceeds Rs. 720 crores. The persons arraigned in the cases include men who held high offices, besides the two former Chief Ministers of Bihar (Lalu Prasad Yadav and Dr. Jagannath Mishra).
(3.) The above indicated question winched to the fore on the midnight of 15th November, 2000, when the erstwhile State of Bihar got itself bifurcated into two States by the Act of Parliament called. The Bihar Reorganisation Act, 2000, ( for short 'the Act'). One region of it became a new State called Jharkhand while the remaining region became the present State of Bihar.;