Supreme Court stays CBI probe into the staff recruitment process of Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Parishad

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed an order passed by the Allahabad High Court ordering a CBI probe into the staff recruitment process of Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Parishad (Legislative Council).

A bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Sanjay Karol passed an interim stay in the matter and issued notice returnable within a period of four weeks on the plea filed by the Legislative Council.

The bench was apprised by senior advocate Mukul Rohtagi, who appeared for the Legislative Council, that the petitioners approached the High Court after they were declared unsuccessful in competitive exams.

Rohtagi said that recruitment was strictly made in accordance with the rules framed under Article 187 of the Constitution.

In its impugned order passed on September 18, a division bench of Justices Om Prakash Shukla and A.R. Masoodi of the High Court had asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct a preliminary enquiry within a period of six weeks and ordered for registration of a suo moto PIL in the matter of "recruitment of staff in Vidhan Parishad Sabha and Vidhan Sabha, Secretariat, UP".

The high court said that the decision taken by the secretariat to empanel an external agency by-passing the rule of Selection Committee for conducting the recruitment process was "shocking".

Prior to the 2019 amendment, the UP Legislative Council Secretariat (Recruitment and Condition of Service) Rules provided for UP Public Service Commission as the recruitment agency. Earlier in April, a single bench of the High Court had dismissed the plea which sought to challenge the process of recruitment of staff in the Secretariat of Vidhan Parishad.