Chandigarh: The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed a Punjab and Haryana High Court order that had stopped judicial officers in Rohtak from hearing any bail application in the real estate fraud case involving DHL Infratech Private Limited and Gupta Property Developers.
A bench of justices JB Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran passed the order on a special leave petition filed by Sidhant Ohlan, DHL Infratech’s authorised signatory, against the State of Haryana.
The court allowed the application seeking permission to file the petition and issued a notice to the state, returnable in four weeks.
It also allowed dasti service, in addition to the usual mode. Dasti service means a summons, notice, or copy of a court order handed directly to the concerned party or their advocate instead of traveling through regular postal channels or official court process servers.
“In the meantime, there shall be a stay of operation of the impugned order (the HC order passed by Justice NS Shekhawat of the High Court) dated 30.09.2026,” the bench said.
Senior advocate K. Parameshwar appeared for the petitioner in the SC.
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Why HC imposed unusual restriction
The High Court’s 30 September order came on an anticipatory bail plea filed by Subhash Gupta, a partner in Gupta Property Developers, Shivji. He is named in an FIR registered on 27 May 2026, at the IMT police station in Rohtak, under Sections 420, 120-B and 506 of the Indian Penal Code, which correspond to Sections 318(4), 61 and 351(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
These sections deal with cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property, criminal conspiracy, and criminal intimidation (threats intended to cause alarm or compel someone to act or refrain from acting).
Hearing his plea, Justice Shekhawat of the HC had observed that the police had made “every attempt” to shield real culprits, who allegedly cheated a large number of investors of crores of rupees.
Justice Shekhawat had noted that the HC had earlier gone through the case file and directed the Inspector General of Police to examine the probe himself. Even then, the judge observed, the investigating officer appeared to be helping the accused, who are directors of DHL Infratech and Gupta Property Developers.
The High Court was also unhappy with the way different bail pleas in the case had been handled by the Rohtak court. The HC informed that the investigation was now being carried out by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Rohtak Superintendent of Police Gaurav Rajpurohit.
Kuldeep Kumar Tahlan, a director of DHL Infratech, and Gurvinder Jeet Singh, an employee of Gupta Property Developers, were arrested. The court said it was surprising that Tahlan got bail while Singh’s plea was dismissed by courts in Rohtak.
The HC further noted that Ravinder Mor, Manjit Kumar and Joginder Singh, all directors of DHL Infratech, and Siddhant, its authorised signatory, were given interim anticipatory bail by the same presiding officer who had dismissed the bail plea of Gurvinder Jeet Singh of Gupta Property Developers.
The HC said it had been told that these four were involved in other alleged scams too.
Subhash Gupta himself has not been given interim anticipatory bail by the High Court so far. His arrest was stayed after he assured the court that he would return the money of the investors, who have not got possession of their flats, with 6 per cent annual interest. The court also said it had been told of certain other facts, which it chose not to mention in the order.
Based on these observations, Justice Shekhawat had restrained the judicial officers of the Sessions Division, Rohtak, from entertaining any bail application in the case. He said the state’s status report showed that Rohtak police were hesitant to act against real estate promoters, and no action had been taken even four months after the FIR.
The high court had expected the state to appoint a senior IPS officer to probe the case and file a status report by the next date of hearing. It had directed its registry to send a copy of the order to the District and Sessions Judge, Rohtak, for strict compliance. The High Court had listed the matter for 28 October. The order, meanwhile, stands stayed by the Supreme Court’s Tuesday order now.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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