The Allahabad excessive court docket has urged the UP chief minister to recognise that the time has come to carry senior bureaucrats and prime administrative heads accountable, and even criminally liable, for the lapses of their departments or subordinates.
The court docket additionally directed the chief secretary to put its judgment earlier than the CM for his private perusal and due consideration of the court docket’s considerations. Justice Vinod Diwakar mentioned the state should undertake a doctrine of “superior duty” beneath which the senior officers in an administrative hierarchy are held accountable.
“Senior officers should be held accountable for the conduct and efficiency of their subordinates, as it’s each their skilled and administrative duty to make sure the efficient supply of public companies,” the bench noticed whereas permitting a petition filed by one Avnesh Kumar Agarwal searching for renewal of his passport.
The petition challenged an order handed by a particular court docket in Bareilly which rejected Agarwal’s plea searching for a “No Objection Certificates” for renewal of his passport. In line with the petitioner, he was not given NOC due to two felony instances towards him out of which one was associated to the Prevention of Corruption Act. In a single case, investigation remained pending for almost twenty years and within the different FIR, the charge-sheet was submitted solely in 2024 after a delay of 18 years.
The court docket allowed the petition, directing the regional passport authority, Bareilly, to challenge/renew the passport in favour of the petitioner in accordance with the prescribed process.
In its June 3, 2026, order, the court docket additionally referred to a 2023 order of the excessive court docket, directing the state authorities to represent a high-powered committee to formulate tips for monitoring the investigation of FIRs registered by authorities departments in corruption and dishonest instances.
In that case, along with issuing different instructions, the division bench directed that the investigations be accomplished expeditiously in a phased method. The court docket was apprised that, pursuant to the 2023 judgment, the high-powered committee was fashioned solely in December 2025 and that too when the court docket took notice of the current matter.
The court docket then mentioned {that a} important obstacle to the efficient implementation of court-issued instructions lies within the mindset of sure sections of the paperwork, whose strategy is “not inclusive” and who have a tendency to treat the retention of discretionary energy “as an finish in itself”.
The court docket additional mentioned that this “apprehension of dropping discretion” is the first driver behind “red-tapism” in public administration.
The bench had reserved judgment three months again and waited for updates on the progress of selections made by the high-powered committee, however acquired no info till the date of pronouncement.
Terming the state of affairs ‘unlucky’, the bench reminded the AGA that the chief secretary is the keystone of the arch of state administration, requiring extraordinary vigilance from those that characterize him.
“It’s, due to this fact, crucial that the discovered regulation officers conduct themselves with extraordinary vigilance, circumspection, and a heightened sense of institutional duty whereas discharging their duties,” the court docket noticed.
With this, the bench directed its registrar (compliance) to right away ship a duplicate of the judgment to the chief secretary of Uttar Pradesh, with a course that the proceedings of the high-powered committee be concluded in a well timed and efficient method.
