Passing an order on a writ petition, the division bench comprising Justice I.A. Ansari and Indira Shah Wednesday set aside and quashed the very resolution issued by the union Home Ministry April 1, 1963, under which the CBI was constituted.

The high court observed that a police force with powers to investigate crime cannot be constituted by merely issuing an executive order. For that purpose, an act shall have to be passed by the legislature, the court said, in its judgment.