NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the CBI probe into alleged irregularities in staff appointments to the secretariats of Uttar Pradesh's Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council in 2022-23.
A bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Sanjay Karol stayed the CBI probe order issued by the Allahabad High Court's Lucknow bench, till the next day of hearing.
The court also issued notice to the original writ petitioners on the plea by Legislative Council UP Lucknow and Uttar Pradesh government challenging the high court order of September 18, 2023.
Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Legislative Council of Uttar Pradesh, contended that the Chairman with the 2019 amendment under the rules framed under Article 187 of the Constitution was allowed to use external agency for recruitment.
Advocate Ankit Roy appeared three private parties Sushil Kumar, Amrish Kumar, and Ajay Kumar Tripathi before the apex court.
They were the petitioners in the high court.
Roy asked the court to make CBI a party in the case before Supreme Court.
He said the high court had directed CBI for conducting a preliminary enquiry (PE) on September 18, and CBI has registered the PE on September 22. However, the apex court did not accept his contention at this stage.
The court sought response from the writ petitioners within four weeks.
The plea claimed the High Court has ordered a CBI inquiry into the recruitment conducted by the petitioners as per Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council Secretariat (Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 1976, as amended in 2019, even without any material on record or hearing on the issue.
It claimed that a perusal of the high court would clearly demonstrate that the court has, without any basis, presumed that the selection process for recruitment to the Secretariat of the UP Legislative Council, which was done through an external agency chosen by the Chairman of the Council as per Rule 22(2) of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council Secretariat (Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 1976, was tainted with criminality.
The High Court has also failed to appreciate that the appellants before it, were unsuccessful candidates who had participated in the recruitment process under the said 2019 Amendment, and had only challenged the same when they failed in the same, the plea said.
In September, the High Court's bench of Justices A R Masoodi and Om Prakash Shukla directed the CBI to submit its preliminary report within six weeks, in view of allegations irregularities in staff appointments to the secretariats.
