Supreme Court to hear on Oct. 9 Punjab appeal against HC order for CBI probe into corruption allegations

The Supreme Court re-scheduled by a day an appeal filed by the State of Punjab against a State High Court order for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into corruption allegations linked to Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann’s office.

Justice Dipankar Datta, heading a Division Bench before which the case came up for hearing on Thursday (October 8, 2026), said the case file was still to “reach” the puisne judge, Justice Sheel Nagu, who was the Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court before his appointment to the apex court. Justice Nagu wanted to go through the case file once it reached him.

Senior advocates Vikas Singh and Shadan Farasat, appearing for the State government, sought an interim order to stay the High Court direction. But Justice Datta pointed out that it was premature to seek an order even before both judges on the Bench had the case file. The case was listed for October 9.

In an oral mentioning, Mr. Singh had said the High Court order of October 5, for a CBI probe and report within two months, violated the very basic principles of federalism.

He said that sending a Central agency into the poll-bound State, where general consent under Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act stood withdrawn since November 8, 2020, was erroneous.

Mr. Singh said the High Court had erroneously directed registration of an FIR into decisions of public servants on transfers, tenders and policy without the previous approval mandated by Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The State of Punjab, in its appeal before the apex court, said the High Court direction for a CBI probe suffered from errors such as treating information shared under Section 66(2) of the PMLA as a direction that makes registration “inevitable”, contrary to the 2022 decision of the apex court in the Vijay Madanlal Choudhary case.

The High Court had directed the CBI to probe corruption allegations linked to Chief Minister Mann’s office. The allegations were raised by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against public servants and private individuals linked to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government include corruption in transfers and postings, policy manipulation, cash for tenders, and other serious irregularities.

Pronouncing its order on a public interest litigation case, the High Court Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra had said that, on a cumulative assessment of the material placed on record in the petition, the court was of the view that a fair and transparent investigation was required into the issue.

The petitioner in the High Court, advocate Nikhil Saraf, had argued that no action had been forthcoming despite communications from the ED under the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 to the Punjab government.