JUDGMENT

S.N. Variava, J.-Leave granted.

Heard parties.

2. 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.

3. Briefly stated the facts are as follows:

Dr. Jagannath Mishra and Laloo 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.

4. 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 report in 2001 (9) SCC 432 these cases have been transferred to the Courts of Special Judges, Jharkhand. When two of these cases namely RC. 20 (A)/96 and RC 6