Ranchi, August 26, 2026: The Jharkhand High Court has begun the process of expediting hearings in 54 cases related to the fodder scam following a direction from the Supreme Court. The cases include appeals involving former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav.
The process began before the court of Justice Sanjay Dwivedi. During the proceedings, the appellants and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) discussed the preparation of paper books required for hearing the appeals.
The court was informed that the lower court records in the cases are voluminous, making it difficult to provide copies of the entire record to all parties. The court considered the issue in the context of preparing the cases for their faster disposal.
Court seeks information on deceased appellants
The High Court also directed that information be provided if any appellant has died and the corresponding appeal has consequently abated.
The CBI was represented by Additional Solicitor General of India Prashant Pallav and Special Public Prosecutor Deepak Kumar Bharti.
The appellants named in the proceedings include Lalu Prasad Yadav, Dr Gaya Prasad Tripathi, Dr Gauri Shankar Prasad, Dr K M Prasad, Sanjay Sinha, Mahinder Singh Bedi, Sunil Gandhi, Dr Brij Narayan Sharma, Ajay Kumar Sinha, Vijay Kumar Mallik, Satyendra Kumar Mehra, Ravindra Kumar Mehra, Ravi Kumar Sinha, Rajan Mehta, Vidyasagar Nishad and Sushil Kumar, among others.
The latest proceedings mark the beginning of the process to take up the long-pending fodder scam appeals in accordance with the Supreme Court’s direction.
