Judgment

G.T. Nanavati, J.-Leave granted in the Special Leave Petitions.

These appeals arise out of the common judgment of the High Court of Judicature at Madras in a batch of writ petitions filed by Ms. Jayala­litha - former Chief Minister of the State of Tamil Nadu, her cabinet colleagues, some MLAs of the AIADMK Party and some officers of the Government, challenging the validity of Section 3 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 in so far as it empo­wers the State Government to appoint as many Special Judges as may be necessary “for such case or group of cases” as may be specified in the notification and also the notification dated 30.4.1997, whereby three additional Courts of City Civil and Sessions Judges, Chennai were established and the Judges of those Courts were appointed as Special Judges to try exclusively on day-to-day basis the criminal cases filed against those writ petition­ers under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The High Court by two separate judgments of the two learned Judges who constituted the Division Bench, dismissed the writ petitions, by holding that Section 3 in so far as it empowers the Government to appoint special Judge “for such case or group of c