High Courts should not order CBI probe based on vague allegations, says Supreme Court

The Supreme Court said in a recent judgement that mere allegations about the incompetence of the local police are not enough for High Courts to hand over cases to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

A bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and K Vinod Chandran said that High Courts should order a CBI investigation “only in cases where material prima facie discloses something calling for an investigation by CBI”. It added: “The ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ without any definite conclusion are not sufficient to put an agency like CBI into motion.”

The bench said this while overturning a May 2024 Punjab and Haryana High Court order that transferred the investigation in an impersonation case to the CBI. The High Court had passed the order based on allegations from the complainant that the local police knew the accused person, and that local police officers may have been involved in the matter.