Supreme Court Deletes Administrative Restrictions On High Court Judge And Remands Matter For Fresh Consideration

A bench of Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice R. Mahadevan reconsidered directions issued in paras 25 and 26 of its 4 August 2025 order in Special Leave Petition (Crl.) No.11445/2025, which arose from a challenge to an impugned judgment of the Allahabad High Court and involved a remand for fresh consideration of Criminal Miscellaneous Application No.2507 of 2024.

The Court set aside the impugned High Court judgment and remanded the matter for fresh disposal, but it deleted two administrative directions previously issued against the concerned High Court judge. The bench clarified that its earlier intention was not “to cause embarrassment or cast aspersions on the concerned Judge” and that intervention was driven by institutional concerns where “the dignity of the institution is imperiled.” The Court observed that it would intervene when matters crossed a constitutional threshold, yet it also emphasised restraint in interfering with High Court administration: “our directions are absolutely not interfering with the administrative power of the Chief Justice of the High Court.” The Court, in its reasoning, observed: “27. We have been constrained to issue directions as contained in Paras 22, 23, 24, 25 and 26 respectively, referred to above, keeping in mind that the impugned order is not the only erroneous order of the concerned Judge that we have looked into for the first time. Many such erroneous orders have been looked into by us over a period of time.” The bench disposed of the Special Leave Petition and directed the Registry to send a copy of the order to the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court.

Background The dispute originated from an appeal by M/s Shikhar Chemicals against a judgment of the Allahabad High Court, which the Supreme Court found required fresh consideration. By its order dated 4 August 2025, the Supreme Court partly allowed the SLP, set aside the impugned High Court order and remanded the matter to the High Court for re-hearing of Criminal Miscellaneous Application No.2507 of 2024. In the same order the Court had requested that the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court withdraw the criminal determination from the concerned judge, assign the matter to another judge, and make the concerned judge sit in a Division Bench with a seasoned senior judge; it also directed that the concerned judge not be assigned any criminal determination until he demitted office.

Following those directions, the Chief Justice of India sent an undated letter requesting reconsideration of the administrative restrictions contained in paras 25 and 26. The Registry re-notified the matter and the present bench heard the request. The Court explained that its prior directions arose from repeated instances where the bench perceived erroneous orders from the same judge and from its constitutional duty to protect “the dignity and authority of the judiciary.” On reconsideration, and while maintaining the remand to the High Court for fresh adjudication, the Court deleted paras 25 and 26 of the 4 August order and left the administrative aspects to the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court, reiterating that the Chief Justice was “the master of the roster.” The judgment cited the Court’s recent observations in Rikhab Birani & Anr. v. State of Uttar Pradesh & Anr. (2025 INSC 512) concerning the misuse of criminal process and the need to curb such practices. The final result was that the SLP was disposed, the impugned High Court order was set aside and remanded for fresh consideration, paras 25 and 26 of the earlier Supreme Court order were deleted, and the Registry was directed to forward a copy of the order to the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court.

Case No.: Petition for Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No.11445/2025 Case Title: M/s. Shikhar Chemicals v. The State of Uttar Pradesh & Anr. Appearances: For the Petitioner(s): Not indicated For the Respondent(s): Not indicated