Who is Nikhil Saraf? The man behind the CBI probe into Punjab’s ED letter

Nikhil Saraf, a Chandigarh advocate, filed the PIL that led the Punjab and Haryana High Court to order a CBI probe into an ED letter on Punjab officials. His farm-stay demolition notice has drawn scrutiny.

North Desk Correspondent

SAS Nagar, October 6

A Chandigarh advocate’s public-interest petition led the High Court to hand an ED referral to the CBI. The court also looked hard at a demolition notice issued against his farm stay.

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The petition that changed the case

On Monday the Punjab and Haryana High Court handed the investigation into an Enforcement Directorate letter to the CBI. The petition behind it was a PIL filed by Nikhil Saraf, a practising advocate, who appeared before the bench in person. The court found that the information the ED had passed to the Punjab Police “prima facie conveys commissioning of cognizable offence in high public office,” and it ordered the CBI to register an FIR and report within two months. (The latest update is that the Punjab government has challenged this order in the Supreme Court; the petitioner and the ED are likely to file a caveat in the apex court so that they are heard in the case too.)

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Who is Nikhil Saraf

Nikhil Saraf is a practising advocate enrolled with the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana and a member of the Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Association. The court records his own affidavit, which describes him as a citizen and advocate who has been “actively engaged in the public domain on matters concerning governance, judicial and police reforms, gender justice, and institutional accountability.”

The affidavit lists affiliations with ActionAid India, the Nagrik Foundation of the Dainik Bhaskar Group, Rotary Club, Eye Foundation of America and the Thomson Reuters Foundation, and says he publishes online platforms including Governance India, Police Corruption India and Reform Judiciary. These are his own statements.

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His litigation

The petitions the order describes begin in 2019 with a PIL on police reform. The court recorded that the petitions that followed raised fake social-media accounts of Punjab Police, the desecration of a religious verse on the police emblem, the use of beacon lights on private and official vehicles, transfers, and fake encounters and illegal mining. The court said that over “the last nearly 7-8 years” he had raised issues in public interest through various writ petitions.

The state of Punjab says he has filed at least nine such petitions. The court did refer to “several other PILs” that had been entertained on their merits.

Two of his earlier petitions were not entertained. In one, a Division Bench declined to interfere on the ground that offences involving moral turpitude could be taken to a magistrate under Section 156(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure. In another PIL, a bench dismissed the petition as premature, noting that no application had been made for sanction under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The court in this case said both were decided on their own facts and did not bar the present petition. In the court’s words, refusal to entertain two PILs “would not mean that the petitioner cannot maintain the present PIL if the facts and circumstances of the present case so warrants.”

The farm stay and the demolition row

Nikhil Saraf runs a farm stay on about 1.13 hectares of agricultural land in Kubaheri village, Block Majri, in Kharar tehsil, Mohali district. He applied for registration under the state’s Farm Stay Policy, 2021, in January 2022, and the order records that licences were issued in the name of the farm stay.

In November 2024 the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority issued a show-cause notice alleging violation of the farm-stay policy and of construction norms. Saraf replied the same year. The order records that no order was passed on his reply, and that the position continued until the present petition was filed.

On 2 September 2026 GMADA issued a memo to Nikhil Saraf, describing it as a speaking order on the November 2024 notice, which the court records he did not receive with the letter. On 31 August a separate show-cause notice had been issued by the Punjab Heritage and Tourism Promotion Board, giving him three days to respond or appear.

Demolition notice and the night hearing

On the night of 4 September, his counsel and the Bar Association moved the court, and the state undertook not to proceed with demolition until 8 September. The order records that the speaking order was not produced even at that hearing.

The court addressed the timing directly. It said the manner in which the demolition followed the notice in the PIL “does create doubt regarding intent of high-ranking State officers against whom petitioner has highlighted corruption.” It also called the government’s haste “undue,” and said the speaking order was not accompanied by the letter. The court said it was not expressing any definite opinion on the legality of the construction.

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The state’s position

The state argued that Nikhil Saraf had concealed his commercial enterprise, that the farm stay operates under licences, and that the petitions were filed to pressure officials into not acting against him. It said the demolition followed a valid show-cause process. On the state’s objection that he lacked credibility, the court said the objection “has no force” and rejected it.

What the court said about him

The court concluded that Nikhil Saraf “is a public-spirited person.” It said the fact that he had raised diverse issues through several PILs and been associated with NGOs “remains undisputed.” It said that running a farm stay under state policy, on land in respect of which notices had been issued, was not enough to discredit him or refuse his petition.

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