Supreme Court agrees to hear urgently Punjab’s plea against CBI probe linked to CM Mann’s office

The Supreme Court on Tuesday (October 6, 2026) agreed to urgently hear the Punjab government against a State High Court order directing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to register a case and probe allegations of corruption against the office of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.

Appearing before Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant, senior advocates Vikas Singh and Shadan Farasat, for the State government, said the order violated the very basic principles of federalism. Mr. Singh said the State was poll-bound, and a Central agency has been ordered to investigate allegations.

Mr. Singh said the allegations regard administrative matters like transfers, etc, but the High Court has ordered a criminal case to be registered. “This is a State going to polls soon. During election time, these kinds of cases are trumped up. The very federal structure has been violated,” he submitted.

The Chief Justice said the court would endeavour to list the case for hearing in the next 24 hours or definitely hear it on October 8.

The High Court had, on October 5, directed the CBI to probe corruption allegations linked to Chief Minister Mann’s office. The allegations 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, a Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra 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.

Expressing its dissatisfaction with the manner in which the Punjab Police had handled the matter so far, the court said in its order: “We are also not impressed by the manner in which Punjab Police has acted so far in the matter, and therefore we deem it appropriate to entrust investigation of the present case to the Central Bureau of Investigation, which will register an FIR (First Information Report) in the matter and proceed with the investigation forthwith.”

A report with regard to the outcome of the investigation shall be submitted to the court within two months, the High Court Bench had directed. “The State of Punjab as well as Punjab Police will render all assistance to the CBI in carrying out fair investigation in the matter,” it had added.

The petition relates to allegations surrounding the involvement of senior officers of Punjab in various scams, including cash for transfers, cash in return for favourable policies, cash for tenders, and such other serious irregularities, with regard to which no investigation had been held, despite the sharing of information with the Punjab Police by the ED.

The petitioner, advocate Nikhil Saraf, said that while communications had been sent by the Enforcement Directorate under Section 66 (2) of the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002 to Punjab, despite such facts as well as other facts of corruption in high public office, having been highlighted by the petitioner also, no action was being taken in the matter.