The Delhi High Court has directed criminal complaint proceedings against six CBI officers.
Justice Madhu Jain found that a 2016 CBI reply to a trial court contained a materially false assertion.
The reply said correspondence with the ministry was under way, but only internal deliberation was taking place.
The Special Judge must file the complaint within four weeks.
The court said its direction is not a finding of guilt.
The Delhi High Court, in an order dated October 6, 2026, directed that criminal complaint proceedings be started against six CBI officers.
Justice Madhu Jain found that the CBI’s August 2, 2016 reply to a trial court contained a materially false assertion.
The reply had said that correspondence with the administrative ministry regarding further legal action was under way.
The High Court found that only an internal CBI deliberation was taking place at that time, and that no such correspondence with the ministry existed.
The case arose from CBI proceedings against a former Indian Revenue Service officer in a disproportionate assets case.
In January 2016, the High Court held the sanction for the officer’s prosecution invalid, and the officer was discharged.
In June 2016, the Ministry of Law and Justice gave an opinion that there appeared to be no reasonable ground to pursue the matter before a higher forum.
The opinion was communicated to the CBI through the Department of Personnel and Training on July 1, 2016.
The court examined successive drafts of the CBI’s reply.
An earlier draft said that the Department of Personnel and Training had rejected the appeal proposal, and that text was deleted and replaced with handwritten words saying correspondence was under way.
The court said this was not mere imprecise wording, and that there was a reasonable foundation for the allegations, according to Bar and Bench.
Court gavel (representative image), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
