Punjab and Haryana High Court orders the CBI to register a case on the Mann office cash-for-transfers file

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to register a criminal case on allegations of cash for transfers, cash for favourable policies and cash for tenders linked to the office of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. A division bench of Chief Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Rohit Kapoor pronounced the order in open court and asked the CBI for a status report within two months. The state government and the Punjab Police were told to give the agency full cooperation.

The bench said it was not impressed by the way the Punjab Police had acted. "We deem it appropriate to entrust investigation of the present case to the Central Bureau of Investigation which will register an FIR in the matter and proceed with the investigation forthwith," the judges said. Hours later, Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said the state would challenge the order in the Supreme Court.

Three letters the police did not turn into a case

The material before the court came from the Enforcement Directorate. Between 24 July and 12 August the ED wrote three times to DGP Gaurav Yadav under Section 66(2) of the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002. The third letter asked for an FIR in the money-laundering case. A Jalandhar zone letter blamed the government for inaction and said it had not performed its duty. The state police, according to the New Indian Express account of the record, asked the ED for complete and legible material and for an official deputation. No state FIR followed.

Advocate Nikhil Saraf filed the public interest petition on 27 August. He alleged that senior officers and other public servants were involved in corruption, including influence over IAS and IPS postings, leaking of confidential files, arms licences and clearance of commercial projects. The ED told the court its letters grew out of material seized in a money-laundering investigation into GMADA land allotments. In that account, a private individual named Nitin Gohal acted as an intermediary for Rajbir Singh Ghuman, officer on special duty to the chief minister. Associates named in the reporting include Bir Devinder and Jitin Gohal. The allegations, as summarised by the court papers reported on Monday, speak of a bribery network collecting crores in cash and real estate, and of people close to the chief minister's office and family. These remain allegations. No charge has been framed.

Consent, and the appeal the state will file

Cheema's argument for the Supreme Court appeal rests on consent. In November 2020 the then Congress government withdrew the general consent that lets the CBI investigate in Punjab without a case-by-case nod. The Aam Aadmi Party government has not restored it. A High Court order directing the CBI to register an FIR is a judicial route around that withdrawal. The state's case in the Supreme Court will have to say whether a bench can still send a matter to the CBI when the standing consent is gone. The High Court has already answered that for itself by making the order.

Judgment had been reserved, and on 14 September the state asked for a three-week extension. The bench did not wait. Leader of the Opposition Pratap Singh Bajwa has treated the order as confirmation of the allegations. The government has treated it as a jurisdictional fight. Satya Pal Jain, Additional Solicitor-General, and Ravi Kamal Gupta, for the CBI, were heard on the agency's side.

The two-month status report is the clock that now matters. If the Supreme Court stays the order, that clock stops. If it does not, the CBI has to open an FIR on a file the state police declined to open after three ED letters, and it has to say within two months what it has found. The names on the ED side of the paper are Ghuman and the Gohals. The name on the political side is the chief minister's office. The court has not found anyone guilty. It has found the state inquiry wanting.