The Allahabad high court has urged the UP chief minister to recognise that the time has come to hold senior bureaucrats and top administrative heads accountable, and even criminally liable, for the lapses of their departments or subordinates.
The court also directed the chief secretary to place its judgment before the CM for his personal perusal and due consideration of the court’s concerns. Justice Vinod Diwakar said the state must adopt a doctrine of “superior responsibility” under which the senior officers in an administrative hierarchy are held accountable.
“Senior officers must be held accountable for the conduct and performance of their subordinates, as it is both their professional and administrative responsibility to ensure the effective delivery of public services,” the bench observed while allowing a petition filed by one Avnesh Kumar Agarwal seeking renewal of his passport.
The petition challenged an order passed by a special court in Bareilly which rejected Agarwal’s plea seeking a “No Objection Certificate” for renewal of his passport. According to the petitioner, he was not given NOC because of two criminal cases against him out of which one was related to the Prevention of Corruption Act. In one case, investigation remained pending for nearly two decades and in the other FIR, the charge-sheet was submitted only in 2024 after a delay of 18 years.
The court allowed the petition, directing the regional passport authority, Bareilly, to issue/renew the passport in favour of the petitioner in accordance with the prescribed procedure.
In its June 3, 2026, order, the court also referred to a 2023 order of the high court, directing the state government to constitute a high-powered committee to formulate guidelines for monitoring the investigation of FIRs registered by government departments in corruption and cheating cases.
In that case, in addition to issuing other directions, the division bench directed that the investigations be completed expeditiously in a phased manner. The court was apprised that, pursuant to the 2023 judgment, the high-powered committee was formed only in December 2025 and that too when the court took note of the present matter.
The court then said that a significant impediment to the effective implementation of court-issued directions lies in the mindset of certain sections of the bureaucracy, whose approach is “not inclusive” and who tend to regard the retention of discretionary power “as an end in itself”.
The court further said that this “apprehension of losing discretion” is the primary driver behind “red-tapism” in public administration.
The bench had reserved judgment three months back and waited for updates on the progress of decisions made by the high-powered committee, but received no information until the date of pronouncement.
Terming the situation ‘unfortunate’, the bench reminded the AGA that the chief secretary is the keystone of the arch of state administration, requiring extraordinary vigilance from those who represent him.
“It is, therefore, imperative that the learned law officers conduct themselves with extraordinary vigilance, circumspection, and a heightened sense of institutional responsibility while discharging their duties,” the court observed.
With this, the bench directed its registrar (compliance) to immediately send a copy of the judgment to the chief secretary of Uttar Pradesh, with a direction that the proceedings of the high-powered committee be concluded in a timely and effective manner.
