S.N.VARIAVA, J. - (1.) LEAVE granted.
(2.) HEARD parties. All these appeals can be disposed of by this common order even though the prayer made in Dr. Jagannath Mishra's case is only for transfer whilst in the other appeals the prayer is for amalgamation of trials. Briefly stated the facts are as follows: Dr. Jagannath Mishra and Lalu Prasad Yadav are ex Chief Ministers of the State of Bihar. They and the other appellants have been accused of charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act and of the offence of conspiracy to defraud the government exchequer of large sums of money. A large number of complaints have been filed and the cases are being prosecuted by CBI before various special courts both in the State of Jharkhand as well as the State of Bihar. We are concerned with 6 such cases which are pending before special courts in the State of Jharkhand.
(3.) IT must be mentioned that earlier the cases were before the special judge at Patna. However pursuant to a judgment of this Court in the case of CBI v. Braj Bhushan Prasad these cases have been transferred to the courts of special judges, Jharkhand. When two of these cases namely RC. 20 (A)/96 and RC. 64 (A)/96 were pending before the special judge at Patna, an application was made for joint trial of these cases. This was rejected by the special judge. The High Court rejected the criminal appeal which was filed against the order of rejection. This judgment is reported in 2000 (3) Patna Law Journal Reports 357. Thereafter writ petitions (criminal) and a criminal misc. petition were filed before the High Court of Jharkhand at Ranchi for amalgamation of 5 cases. Dr. Jagannath Mishra, by his transfer petition applied for transfer of 5 cases to one court. Dr. Jagannath Mishra's petition was dismissed by the impugned order dated 6th August, 2002. The other writ petitions and criminal misc. petitions were dismissed by the impugned order dated 10th September, 2002. Hence these appeals. Before us all are applying for amalgamation of 6 cases.;