The Allahabad High Court has urged Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to recognise that the time has come to hold senior bureaucrats and top administrative heads accountable and even criminally liable for lapses of their departments or subordinates.
The court also instructed the chief secretary to present the judgment to the chief minister for his personal review and consideration of the court's concerns. Justice Vinod Diwakar said that 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.
The petitioner, Avnesh Kumar Agarwal, filed a petition contesting an order issued by a special court in Bareilly that denied his request for a No Objection Certificate (NOC) necessary for the renewal of his passport. The petitioner claimed that the NOC was withheld due to two criminal cases against him, one of which involved the Prevention of Corruption Act. In one case, the investigation has been pending for nearly two decades, and in the other, the chargesheet was submitted only in 2024 after an 18-year delay. In its order dated June 3, the court referred to a 2023 order of the High Court in Manish Kumar Singh vs State of UP 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 learned that, following the 2023 judgment, the committee was only formed in December 2025, which was noted by the court during the current proceedings. 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 stated that this "fear of losing discretion" primarily drives "red-tapism" in public administration. The bench, which had reserved its judgment three months ago while awaiting updates on the committee's progress, received no information by the time of the announcement.
Terming the situation as "unfortunate", the bench reminded the additional advocate general that the chief secretary is the keystone of the arch of state administration requiring extraordinary vigilance from those who represent him. The court said, "Learned Additional Advocate General must appreciate that the chief secretary functioning as the secretary to the Cabinet and the Council of Ministers and serving in that capacity, as the principal adviser to the chief minister and the Council of Ministers on all matters of civil administration, policy implementation, and inter-departmental coordination, occupies a special and privileged position and is in every sense the keystone of the arch of State administration. "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.
Consequently, the bench instructed its registrar (compliance) to promptly send a copy of the judgment to the Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh, directing that the committee's proceedings be concluded in a timely and effective manner. The court allowed the petition, ordering the Regional Passport Authority in Bareilly to issue or renew the passport for the petitioner in accordance with the prescribed procedure.