Aiman J. Chishti

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the District and Sessions Judge, Panipat, to conduct a fact-finding inquiry to identify the officials responsible for the prolonged pendency of an eight-year-old murder trial, while granting interim bail to an accused who has been in custody since 2018 for want of resources to furnish bail bonds despite an earlier bail order in his favour.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has struck down a Haryana Government instruction imposing a blanket ban on foreign travel, official or personal, by government employees, holding that such an indiscriminate prohibition, applied without regard to individual circumstances, violates Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has acquitted four men who had been sentenced to death for the rape and murder of two minor sisters, holding that none of the disclosure statements relied upon by the prosecution to justify recovery of physical evidence met the requirements for admissibility under Section 27 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.The Division Bench of Justice Anoop Chitkara and...

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has acquitted the accused in a case involving the theft of a judicial file from the Court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, holding that the prosecution had, at best, raised suspicion but failed to establish a complete and unbroken chain of circumstantial evidence connecting the accused to the offence. [2026 LiveLaw (PH) 304]Justice Mandeep Pannu said, "The...

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has refused to reduce the sentence of a school bus driver convicted for rash and negligent driving after the bus he was driving overturned, leaving several school children, teachers and the conductor injured. [2026 LiveLaw (PH) 305]

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed that a Warrant Officer appointed by the Court in a habeas corpus matter must be given immediate and unhindered access to CCTV systems and relevant recordings when visiting a police station to verify allegations of illegal detention. [2026 LiveLaw (PH) 306]Justice Virinder Aggarwal said that the ordinary requirement of obtaining permission...

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has held that a judgment of acquittal cannot be ignored in collateral proceedings merely because it was pronounced in defiance of a stay order.The Court held that invalidity of such an acquittal must first be established before a competent forum and that a court-ordered re-investigation, without an express direction setting aside the acquittal or...

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has granted default bail to two accused in an NDPS case, holding that an order extending the statutory period for completing investigation beyond 180 days cannot be relied upon against an accused who was neither noticed nor given an opportunity to oppose the extension — even if the extension application was framed as a composite one covering all co-accused...

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has granted regular bail to an accused in a car theft-related case registered under Sections 379/411 IPC, holding that an accused's involvement in numerous other criminal cases cannot, by itself, be the sole ground for denying bail.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has dismissed a regular bail application in a money-laundering case arising from an alleged ₹236 crore bank fraud, holding that economic offences involving calculated design, manipulation of records and misuse of corporate or fiduciary structures warrant a more circumspect approach than offences committed in a moment of passion or impulse.Justice Sumeet...