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Kunal Yadav & Ors. vs. Manan Kumar Mishra & Ors.

Writ Petition (Criminal) · 2026:DHC:8081Decided 21 Sept 2026New Delhi Bench
W.P.(CRL) 2850/2026CNR: DLHC010438192026
Justice Girish Kathpalia

Background

A group of young advocates who staged a peaceful sit-in protest at the Bar Council of India (BCI) office, following controversy over the BCI Chairman's handling of a law-student dispute, alleged they were assaulted at night by around 25-30 unidentified men (some in advocates' attire) in the presence of police officials. They sought a High Court direction for the CBI (rather than Delhi Police) to investigate, preservation of CCTV footage, and a decision on their representation, arguing that the BCI Chairman being a Member of Parliament of the ruling party made a fair Delhi Police probe unlikely.

Decision Breakdown

The Court held that the petitioners had not exhausted the ordinary statutory remedies available under the criminal procedure law, such as approaching the Superintendent of Police or the concerned Magistrate, before rushing to the High Court. It further found that, on the petitioners' own complaint, the alleged conduct (beating, slapping, and dragging, with no weapons involved) amounted at most to a non-cognizable offence of causing hurt, triable only by a magistrate and not investigable by police at all. The Court expressly disapproved of the unsubstantiated suggestion that Delhi Police could not be trusted merely because the accused was a ruling-party MP, and dismissed the writ petition as not maintainable, leaving the petitioners free to pursue the magistrate-route remedy.

Lesson Learnt

Before seeking a High Court direction for a special agency to investigate, complainants must first exhaust ordinary criminal-law remedies such as approaching the police hierarchy or the magistrate, and courts will not entertain vague, unproven allegations that a state police force cannot be trusted.

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