LiveLaw Punjab & Haryana High Court Weekly Roundup: September 07 - September 12, 2026
Nominal Index [Citations : 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 313 - 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 326]Inderjit Kaur v. State of Haryana and another; Gurjit Singh and others v. State of Haryana and another 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 313Kaushalya Rani v. Union of India through the office of Narcotics Control Bureau 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 314State of Haryana and Another versus Sanjeev Batish and Another 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 315STATE OF...
Nominal Index [Citations : 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 313 - 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 326]
Inderjit Kaur v. State of Haryana and another; Gurjit Singh and others v. State of Haryana and another 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 313
Kaushalya Rani v. Union of India through the office of Narcotics Control Bureau 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 314
State of Haryana and Another versus Sanjeev Batish and Another 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 315
STATE OF PUNJAB v. GURPREET ALIAS GOPI 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 316
Sameer Gaba v. Priyanka and Others 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 317
Nirmala Devi and others v. State of Haryana and others 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 318
RADHIKA RAO AND OTHERS v. STATE OF PUNJAB AND ANOTHER 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 319
XXXX v. XXXX 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 320
Gurkaran Singh Dhaliwal v. Central Board of Film Certification and another 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 321
Jyoti Sareen v. UOI 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 322
Court on its own motion v. Ram Niwas Aggarwal 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 323
Kashish Uppal @ Sofia Uppal v. State of Punjab 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 324
Pepsu Road Transport Corporation v. Daljeet Singh and others (and three connected appeals) 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 325
Sunil Kumar @ Sunny v. State of Haryana 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 326
Reports
Case Title: Inderjit Kaur v. State of Haryana and another; Gurjit Singh and others v. State of Haryana and another
Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 313
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has quashed an FIR registered by a wife against her husband, mother-in-law, sister-in-law and brother-in-law alleging that her two children were taken away on the pretext of a religious ceremony and subsequently taken to Italy, holding that the essential ingredients of cheating and criminal breach of trust cannot be made out merely because custody of children was allegedly obtained through deception.
Case Title: Kaushalya Rani v. Union of India through the office of Narcotics Control Bureau
Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 314
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has dismissed an anticipatory bail application in an NDPS case with costs of ₹50,000 on the accused-petitioner who falsely claimed to be a first-time offender — and disclosed concealed antecedents only after being confronted by the prosecution.
Justice Sumeet Goel said, "allowing a litigant who suppresses material facts to have his/her case evaluated on merits; moreso, after the suppression is exposed by the prosecution; undermines judicial efficiency and encourages dishonest litigation tactics. If the only consequence of non-disclosure of criminal antecedents/previous criminal involvements is taking of an adverse inference by the court while considering such bail plea on merits thereof, the dishonest litigants (resorting to such practise) face no real downside to withholding or giving misleading/incomplete information as they lose nothing by taking a chance on deceiving the court.
Case Name : State of Haryana and Another versus Sanjeev Batish and Another
Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 315
A Division Bench of the Punjab & Haryana High Court comprising Justice Harsimran Singh Sethi and Justice Minderjeet Yadav held that service rendered on Current Duty Charge as stop-gap arrangement cannot be counted as completed service under statutory rules requiring eight years of substantive service in the cadre for promotion.
Title: STATE OF PUNJAB v. GURPREET ALIAS GOPI
Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 316
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has acquitted a man sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl, after finding the prosecution's case on circumstantial evidence riddled with unexplained contradictions, a suspiciously delayed "last seen" witness, and serious doubts about the sanctity of the DNA sample chain of custody.
The division bench of Justice Vinod S. Bhardwaj and Justice Sukhvinder Kaur said, "It seems that the Investigating Agency found an easy prey in the appellant-accused Gurpreet @ Gopi who is an orphan and has no other member of the family and with no stable means of sustenance to douse the unrest and commotion which may have arisen as a result of a perceived rape and murder of a minor girl child. The accused with no members of family to pursue his defence and with minimal means of defending himself thus have little shot."
Title: Sameer Gaba v. Priyanka and Others
Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 317
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has held that merely holding a valid foreign driving licence does not authorise a person to drive in India, unless the licence meets the applicable statutory requirements and is accompanied by the requisite international driving permit or Indian authorisation.
Title: Nirmala Devi and others v. State of Haryana and others
Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 318
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has set aside the Haryana Staff Selection Commission's rejection of three TGT (Sanskrit) candidates who were denied the benefit of promised age relaxation solely because they had, out of caution, paid the application fee despite being expressly exempted from it.
Title: RADHIKA RAO AND OTHERS v. STATE OF PUNJAB AND ANOTHER
Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 319
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has quashed an FIR registered under Section 295-A IPC against the director, producer and lead actor of the film "Yaarian 2" over a song depicting a non-Amritdhari (unbaptised) actor wearing the Kirpan, holding that inadvertent artistic portrayal, without deliberate and malicious intent to outrage religious feelings, does not attract the offence.
Title: XXXX v. XXXX
Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 320
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has transferred a divorce petition filed by a husband from the Family Court at Hisar to the Family Court at Sonepat, on the wife's application, holding that a husband's offer to bear travelling expenses for hearings does not constitute an inflexible rule defeating a wife's prayer for transfer, and that the convenience of female litigants deserves due weightage in matrimonial transfer matters. [2026 LiveLaw (PH) 322]
CBFC Regional Officer Lacked Authority To Refuse 'Chardikala' Film Certification: P&H High Court
Case Title: Gurkaran Singh Dhaliwal v. Central Board of Film Certification and another
Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 321
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has held that orders refusing certification to the Punjabi film "Chardikala" were passed by an authority lacking competence to do so, after it emerged that no valid delegation of the Central Board of Film Certification's statutory powers existed in favour of the Regional Officer or even the Chairperson on the dates the refusal orders were issued.
Punjab & Haryana High Court Strikes Down Section 147A Income Tax Act As Unconstitutional
Case Title: Jyoti Sareen v. UOI
Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 322
The Punjab & Haryana High Court struck down the newly inserted Section 147A of the Income Tax Act, 1961, which retrospectively clarifies the role of the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer (JAO) in reassessment proceedings.
The bench of Justice Deepak Sibal and Justice Rupinderjit Chahal pronounced the decision.
Case Title: Court on its own motion v. Ram Niwas Aggarwal
Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 323
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has held that the statutory protection for fair criticism of a judicial act under Section 5 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 is available only in respect of a case that has been finally decided and cannot be invoked by a litigant to justify scandalous allegations levelled against Judges while his own litigation remains pending before them.
The Court held a 81-year-old litigant guilty of criminal contempt for repeatedly levelling scandalous and uncorroborated allegations of corruption and collusion against multiple sitting and former Judges of the High Court and judicial officers of the Hisar district judiciary, in the course of a decades-old petrol pump partnership dispute, holding that such conduct amounted to a sustained campaign of vilification rather than fair criticism.
Kashish Uppal @ Sofia Uppal v. State of Punjab
Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 324
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has granted regular bail to a woman accused of conniving with a co-accused to get multiple false rape cases registered across Punjab and Delhi with the object of extorting money from the alleged victims, while separately suggesting that a national-level database be developed to make the antecedents of habitual complainants available to investigating agencies across jurisdictions. [2026 LL (PH) 324]
Case Title: Pepsu Road Transport Corporation v. Daljeet Singh and others (and three connected appeals)
Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 325
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has set aside a Single Judge's order directing regularisation of the services of drivers, conductors and other staff engaged through a private outsourcing agency with the Pepsu Road Transport Corporation (PRTC), holding that a master-servant relationship must be established through documentary evidence such as an appointment order, and cannot be presumed merely because the employees were deployed with and supervised by the Corporation for long, continuous periods.
Sunil Kumar @ Sunny v. State of Haryana
Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (PH) 326
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has dismissed a bail application filed by a man accused under the Official Secrets Act and Section 152 BNS for allegedly sharing photographs of the Air Force Station, Ambala Cantt and Rafale jets with a woman operating from Pakistan, holding that even if the accused was a victim of a honey trap, there was no justification for sharing such sensitive photographs with an unknown person from across the border. [2026 LL (PH) 326]
Other Development
Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra was sworn in as Chief Justice of Punjab & Haryana High Court today. Pertinently, the Punjab Government cabinet on Sunday passed a resolution against the Central government decision for the appointment of Justice Mishra as the CJ, alleging that the decision was taken “without its consent.”
The oath ceremony was not attended by Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, while Haryana CM Nayab Singh Saini was present at the event.
Justice Rohit Kapoor Appointed As Permanent Judge Of Punjab & Haryana High Court
The Central Government has notified the appointment of Justice Rohit Kapoor, presently an Additional Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, as a permanent Judge of the High Court, with effect from the date he assumes charge of office.
The notification, issued by the Department of Justice, states that the President," in exercise of the power conferred by Clause (1) of Article 217 of the Constitution of India, is pleased to appoint Justice Rohit Kapoor as a Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court."
Case Title: Court on its own motion v. State of Punjab and others
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the authorities of the Union of India to place on record the methodology suggested for bringing drug-dependent jail inmates to a state of normalcy, as part of its ongoing suo motu examination of opioid dependence among prisoners across Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh.
Chief Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Rohit Kapoor said, "We also require the authorities of the Union of India to place on record the methodology suggested for bringing such drug-dependent inmates to a state of normalcy."
A criminal contempt petition has been filed before the Punjab & Haryana High Court against CJP spokesperson Saurav Das, alleging that his X post on August 20 scandalised the Court and the then Acting Chief Justice by questioning their integrity, impartiality and authority in connection with a Division Bench judgment concerning payment of dearness allowance arrears by the Punjab Government.
The petition has been filed by practising lawyer Nitin Garg under Article 215 of the Constitution, read with Sections 2(c), 12 and 15 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court, in a batch of contempt of court petitions concerning alleged non-compliance with safeguarding against illegal arrests, has directed the Director Generals of Police and Chief Secretaries of Punjab, Haryana and the Union Territory of Chandigarh to file affidavits detailing compliance with the Supreme Court's directions in Satender Kumar Antil v. CBI on standing orders for arrest procedure under Sections 41 and 41-A of the Cr.P.C.
National Lok Adalat Held At Punjab And Haryana High Court, 388 Cases Settled
As part of the nationwide initiative of the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA),the National Lok Adalat was organised today at the Punjab and Haryana High Court, in coordination with the High Court Legal Services Committee. The National Lok Adalat was held under the overall supervision of Justice Suvir Sehgal, Chairman, High Court Legal Services Committee.