Overview
- The Union Territory of Chandigarh moved the Supreme Court on Friday, May 22, 2026, to challenge the Punjab and Haryana High Court order that quashed the FIR, chargesheet and proceedings against Bhagwant Mann and other AAP leaders, and the hearing was adjourned to allow the UT to add respondents and file impleadments.
- The Punjab and Haryana High Court on November 29, 2025, set aside the case after finding no prima facie material linking the leaders to specific acts of instigation, noting no words or gestures were attributed to them and that no prohibitory order under Section 144 CrPC was in force.
- The FIR dates to January 10, 2020, when a woman constable complained that Mann and several AAP leaders led roughly 750–800 protesters toward the Punjab chief minister’s residence, and the charges in the case include Sections 147, 149, 332 and 353 of the IPC.
- Police records say barricades were pushed, water jets were used to disperse the crowd and stone pelting followed, with several officers recording minor injuries in Medico Legal Reports; the high court questioned whether those reports and the charges linked specific leaders to those acts.
- The Supreme Court’s decision could either restore criminal proceedings or uphold an early judicial check on weak pre-trial evidence, a result that will shape legal accountability for the 2020 protest and affect the political standing of the Punjab chief minister and other party leaders.