The Supreme Court has quashed an Allahabad High Court order that had directed a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the recruitment process for various posts in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council secretariats. A Bench comprising Justices J.K. Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi delivered the ruling on October 16, 2025, allowing appeals filed by the Legislative Council, the State of Uttar Pradesh, and others.
The High Court had, in September 2023, taken suo motu cognizance of alleged irregularities in the recruitment process under Advertisement No. 1/2020 and directed a preliminary CBI inquiry, even though none of the petitioners before it had sought such an investigation. The Supreme Court held that the High Court’s decision to convert the matter into a suo motu Public Interest Litigation (PIL) and order a CBI probe exceeded its jurisdiction and was not based on sufficient material or specific findings.
Referring to earlier precedents, including State of West Bengal v. Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights (2010) 3 SCC 571, the Bench emphasized that directions for a CBI investigation must be exercised sparingly, only in exceptional circumstances where prima facie evidence of a serious offence exists. The Court observed that the High Court’s order was founded merely on “doubt and assumption” without the threshold material necessary to justify a CBI probe.
Accordingly, the Supreme Court set aside the impugned orders dated September 18 and October 3, 2023, and remitted the matter back to the High Court to hear the pending appeals on their own merits.