Jharkhand State may have to tackle many scam cases

By Our Staff Correspondent

PATNA, AUG. 26. The bifurcation of Bihar is likely to affect the judicial system with the impact that it might saddle the new Jharkhand State with a plethora of scam cases that caused political upheaval even at the national level.

While the geographical and administrative segmentation are under way, the process of demarcation of the judicial system is likely to pose a few problems with members of the judiciary not sure about the jurisdiction of cases now under the supervision of the Patna High Court, which has a Bench at Ranchi too.

Doubts were expressed by the Division Bench of the Patna High Court monitoring the fodder scam case investigation by the CBI yesterday. The two Judges were not certain that the Bench would be empowered to monitor the entire case after the creation of Jharkhand State, particularly in the light of the fact that most cases related to the plateau region.

The two wondered if a separate Bench would have to be constituted at Ranchi to monitor cases coming under its jurisdiction. They also underscored the inevitability of Judges opting for either of the two Benches.

One opinion emerged was that the chiefs of the Ranchi and Patna Benches of the High Court could together sort out the jurisdiction of cases and the Patna High Court be allowed to retain some cases relating to the tribal heartland.

Another lawyer felt that since the Bench was monitoring the case at the directive of the Supreme Court, the Bench was well within its right to continue with the exercise till the Apex Court passes any fresh order.

The Bench comprising Mr. Justice S. N. Jha and Mr. Justice S. J. Mukhopadhyaya fixed the next date of monitoring on November 10, apparently leaving it to the higher judicial authorities to decide by then, by which time the new State is also expected to be notified.

It, however, expected the various agencies involved to complete their probes by then pointing out that they had taken more than four years with no end in sight.

The CBI has thus far filed chargesheets in 36 cases while the process was yet to be completed in relation to 10 others. Most fodder scam cases pertain to districts like Ranchi, Hazaribagh, Dumka, Chaibasa and Dhanbad, all of which will come under the proposed Jharkhand State.

The doubts the Bench reflected on with respect to monitoring the fodder scam case will basically apply to all cases relating to the 18 districts of South Bihar which are pending disposal not only at the level of the Patna High Court, but lower courts, specially the numerous designated courts, located in Patna.

Even in the fodder scam cases, chargesheets had already been filed in the CBI designated court and trials have begun in a few. A decision would have to be taken whether such cases would be allowed to run their natural course or transfer them to the new State in which case these would most probably be handled by new judges.

The first thing that would require to be done is the number of cases which are related to the Jharkhand region. Most of the major scams were hatched in the districts of Santhal Parganas and Chotanagpur region. The others include the Bitumen scam, land deal scam, a good part of the medicine purchase scam and the muster roll scam, to name a few.

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Section  : Other States
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