Prayagraj: 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.
