A Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court granted interim bail from 11.09.2026 to 21.12.2026 to a 76-year-old accused in a money-laundering case linked to alleged drug smuggling, on medical grounds and after more than five years in custody (paras 21-24). The rigours of Section 45 of the PMLA, it held, cannot keep in prison a person so unfit that treatment inside becomes a mere formality (para 17).
A Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court declared Section 147A of the Income-tax Act, 1961 unconstitutional and struck it down (paras 63, 79). The retrospective provision, inserted by the Finance Bill, 2026 with effect from 01.04.2021, sought to validate reassessment notices issued by jurisdictional Assessing Officers without curing the defect found by the courts (paras 4, 59-60). The Bench also quashed the notices for not being issued through randomised, faceless allocation (paras 78-79).
In a suo motu public interest case on drug-dependent jail inmates, the Punjab and Haryana High Court said Punjab's figures prima facie indicated "a serious malaise" (paras 1-3). By an interim order it asked Punjab to explain its action under Rule 29.22 of the Punjab Prison Rules, Haryana to file a further affidavit on counsellors and its SOP, the Union of India to place on record its methodology, and PGIMER to outline a medical protocol (paras 6, 9-10, 12-13). The matter is pending.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court granted regular bail to a petitioner accused of conniving with a co-accused to get multiple cases registered in Punjab and Delhi on false allegations of rape to extort money (para 2). It relied on about two years and five months in custody, bail to both co-accused, offences triable by a Magistrate and only 2 of 30 witnesses examined (para 8). Before parting, it said a national-level portal of antecedents in repeated-complaint cases needed consideration (para 9).
The Punjab and Haryana High Court refused regular bail to a man accused under the Official Secrets Act and Section 152 BNS of sharing photographs of the Air Force Station, Ambala Cantt, including Rafale jets, with a woman whose numbers operated from Pakistan (paras 1-2, 9). Even if it was a honey trap, the Court said, there was no occasion to share such photographs with an unknown person (para 6).
The Punjab and Haryana High Court held a litigant guilty of criminal contempt for scurrilous, uncorroborated allegations against High Court judges and judicial officers who dealt with his criminal complaint (paras 42, 51). Filing the material in court was publication, the reference was within time, fair comment under Section 5 needs a finally decided case, and truth under Section 13(b) was not proved (paras 37, 41, 45, 49). Sentence is to be heard on 12.10.2026 (para 53).
The Punjab and Haryana High Court quashed a Jalandhar FIR under Section 295-A IPC against the directors, producer and actor of the film "Yaarian 2" over a song showing a clean-shaven, non-Amritdhari actor wearing the Sri Sahib (Kirpan) (paras 1-2, 18). The inadvertent portrayal, an expression of creative liberty, was not a deliberate and malicious insult to the Sikh religion, and mens rea was lacking (para 14).
The Punjab and Haryana High Court held that the orders refusing certification to the Punjabi film "Chardikala" were passed by a CBFC Regional Officer who lacked competence, since no power under Section 4 of the Cinematograph Act had been delegated before 29.08.2026 (para 4.1). With the orders withdrawn, it disposed of the appeal, directing a fresh decision by the Chairperson after supplying the committee records and hearing the filmmaker (paras 8-11).
The Punjab and Haryana High Court transferred a husband's divorce petition from the Family Court at Hisar to Sonepat at the wife's request, holding that an offer by the husband to bear travelling expenses does not, in every case, defeat a wife's prayer for transfer (paras 9, 13). The wife had no independent income, lived with her widowed mother and cared for their minor son (paras 7, 10).
A Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court set aside a single judge's direction to regularise drivers, conductors and others recruited by a private outsourcing agency and deployed with the PEPSU Road Transport Corporation (paras 2, 62). Without a master-servant relationship proved by appointment, working for the PRTC did not make them its employees (paras 20-21, 29).
The Punjab and Haryana High Court refused regular bail to Sandeep Gupta, accused by the Enforcement Directorate of laundering about ₹236 crore diverted from Richa Industries Limited through shell entities (paras 1-2, 8). It held that where material prima facie shows a specific, active role, especially through misuse of corporate or fiduciary structures, bail must be approached with greater circumspection (paras 6.1-7).
The Punjab and Haryana High Court held that candidates promised age relaxation because earlier TGT (Sanskrit) advertisements were cancelled cannot be denied it merely because they paid an application fee from which they were exempt (paras 13, 25). Setting aside the 2024 result to that extent, it directed the Haryana Staff Selection Commission to consider them on merit within two months (para 26).