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.

The Supreme Court, however, said that the claims of the complainant were “not substantiated at all”.

A first information report was filed in the matter in Haryana’s Panchkula in October 2022, accusing an individual of posing as an Intelligence Bureau inspector general and coercing the complainant to transfer Rs 1.49 crore to his account.

The complainant moved the High Court seeking that the probe be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

The Supreme Court observed that the case was being investigated by a Special Investigation Team led by the Assistant Commissioner of Police, and the complainant had provided no proof that the local police were biased or incapable.

“The complainant has raised some allegations that high ranking police officials of Haryana Police are in connivance with the appellant, but such bald allegations are not sufficient to handover the case to CBI, without any kind of substantiation,” the court said.