Fake Degree Row: SC Dismisses Plea Seeking Criminal Case Against UP Deputy CM
The bench decided not to interfere with the high court and dismissed the plea filed by one Diwakar Nath Tripathi.
By Sumit Saxena
Published : August 1, 2025 at 8:16 PM IST
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a plea challenging an order of the Allahabad High Court, which dismissed the plea seeking the registration of a criminal case against senior BJP leader and Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, in connection with allegations of submitting fake educational degrees while contesting elections and obtaining a petrol pump dealership.
The matter was heard by a bench comprising justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Aravind Kumar. After hearing submissions, the bench decided not to interfere with the high court and dismissed the plea filed by one Diwakar Nath Tripathi. The petitioner had also filed the plea before the high court.
The plea, filed in the apex court, claimed that the petitioner procured official communications conclusively establishing that a roll number from the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan, Allahabad, repeatedly cited by Maurya for electoral candidature and to obtain commercial privileges from the Indian Oil Corporation, was in reality allotted to one Manju Singh, and not him.
The plea claimed that such glaring discrepancies constitute prima facie evidence of cognizable offences under Sections 463, 464, and 471 of the IPC, and additionally, contradictory declarations submitted by him across multiple elections clearly manifest deliberate falsification of records for personal and political gain.
The plea said: “Despite this explicit and compelling prima facie evidence, the high court refused to set aside the order of the magistrate and declined to issue a direction for the registration of the FIR. The high court manifestly erred in endorsing the preliminary enquiry by the police."
The plea contended that the preliminary police enquiry accepted by the magistrate and subsequently endorsed by the high court impermissibly shifted the investigative burden onto the petitioner, requiring him to pursue administrative remedies before the Election Commission and Indian Oil Corporation.
The plea said as the petitioner gained knowledge of the alleged forgery only through RTI replies received between 2017 and 2021, the complaint lodged in July 2021 was manifestly within the prescribed limitation. The petitioner sought a direction for the registration of an FIR against Maurya. The plea also sought direction for investigation by an independent agency, preferably the CBI or such other central agency not subordinate to Uttar Pradesh, to ensure fairness, impartiality, and credibility of the investigative process.
“High court has committed a patent error of law in refusing to direct registration of an FIR despite clear disclosure of cognizable offences on the face of the complaint and accompanying documents, thereby violating the binding mandate laid down by the Constitution Bench in Lalita Kumari v. State of Uttar Pradesh, (2014), which unequivocally holds that registration of an FIR is mandatory where the complaint discloses cognizable offences and that no preliminary enquiry is permissible except in exceptional circumstances”, said the plea.
A lower court in September 2021, had refused to order registration of FIR in the case. The ACJM court had said that no case was made out against Maurya.
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