JUDGMENT :

1. A common question of law as to whether the Central Bureau of Investigation is vested with jurisdiction to investigate offences committed within the territorial jurisdiction of erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir prior to its bifurcation into two Union Territories, has arisen in all these petitions. Besides laying challenge on the ground of jurisdiction of the CBI to investigate the offences, certain other grounds of challenge to the prosecution launched by Central Bureau of Investigation against the petitioners, which are peculiar to individual cases have also been raised by the petitioners. The petitions have been clubbed together on account of the fact that a common question of law has arisen as regards the jurisdiction of Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate offences committed in the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir, as such for the present, by virtue of this judgment/order, it is proposed to deal with the said question of law only.

2. It has been contended by learned counsels appearing for the petitioners that the Central Bureau of Investigation lacks