The Supreme Court on Friday (November 6) dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) that had sought guidelines to stop people facing serious criminal charges from being appointed as ministers or given important Cabinet portfolios, Bar and Bench reported.

Source: Bar and Bench

A Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana heard the plea, filed by Dilip Kumar Sharma under Article 32 of the Constitution. The petition had invoked Articles 75(1) and 164(1), which govern the appointment of Union and state ministers, and had asked for objective suitability assessments, a public 'Suitability Memorandum' and safeguards where a pending case could create a conflict of interest, IANS reported.

Source: IANS via HiIndia

The Bench expressed reservations about laying down such guidelines, observing that criminal cases could sometimes be initiated against political leaders by their opponents as part of the democratic process. Justice Bagchi remarked during the hearing that criminal law is continuously weaponised against people in the democratic process, according to court reporting of the oral hearing; those remarks are not part of a reasoned judgment.

The petitioner, represented by advocate Nisha Tiwari, had relied on data compiled by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). Reports of the plea cited ADR figures that a large share of sitting legislators and ministers have declared pending criminal cases, including serious charges — the petition argued that executive discretion in Cabinet formation must operate within reasonable parameters, Nation Press reported.

Source: Nation Press

The plea also drew on the 2014 Constitution Bench judgment in Manoj Narula v. Union of India, in which the Supreme Court declined to read an additional disqualification into the Constitution but stressed that the Prime Minister and Chief Ministers should exercise constitutional restraint in choosing ministers.

With the PIL dismissed, the legal position remains unchanged: there is no court-made bar on appointing a minister who faces criminal charges, and the choice of Cabinet colleagues remains the discretion of the Prime Minister or Chief Minister, subject to the Constitution and to politics. The issue has also been before Parliament, where the Union government introduced Bills in 2025 proposing the removal of a Prime Minister, Chief Minister or minister who remains under arrest for more than 30 days in a serious offence.