'Cash at judge's house': CJI constitutes 3-judge panel to probe allegations against Justice Yashwant Varma

Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna on Saturday constituted a three-judge committee to probe allegations of recovery of unaccounted cash at the residence of Justice Yashwant Varma—a sitting judge of the Delhi High Court—during a fire incident on March 14.

The CJI has also asked Delhi High Court Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya not to assign any judicial work to Justice Yashwant Varma for the time being.

The three-member committee, which will conduct an inquiry into the allegations against Justice Varma, consists of Punjab & Haryana High Court Chief Justice Sheel Nagu, Himachal Pradesh High Court Chief Justice G.S. Sandhawalia and Justice Anu Sivaraman of the Karnataka High Court, the Supreme Court said in an official statement.

The decision was taken by the CJI after receiving a report from the Delhi High Court Chief Justice on the allegations against Justice Varma’s residence, sources said, adding further course of action would be decided after submission of report by the three-judge panel.

“The Report submitted by the Chief Justice of the High Court of Delhi, response of Mr. Justice Yashwant Varma, and other documents, are being uploaded on the Supreme Court website,” the statement read.

According to the Delhi Fire Service (DFS), a fire broke out on March 14 at 11.35 pm at the judge’s residence in a store room stocked with stationery and domestic articles and two fire tenders reached the spot at 11.43 pm and doused the fire in 15 minutes.

Interestingly, the “fire report” prepared by the DFS made no mention of recovery of any cash during their operation to put out the fire at the judge’s residence.

Amid reports about the transfer of Justice Varma from the Delhi High Court to the Allahabad High Court, the Supreme Court had on Friday sought to dispel “misinformation and rumours”, saying the transfer proposal was still under consideration and that the proposal to transfer him was not linked to the in-house inquiry initiated by the Delhi High Court Chief Justice.

“The proposal for transfer of Mr. Justice Yashwant Varma, who is the second senior most Judge in the Delhi High Court and a member of the Collegium, to his parent High Court i.e. the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, where he will be ninth in seniority, is independent and separate from the In-house enquiry procedure,” the top court had said on Friday.

“The proposal was examined by the Collegium comprising of the Chief Justice of India and four senior-most Judges of the Supreme Court on 20th March 2025, and thereafter letters were written to the consultee Judges of the Supreme Court, the Chief Justices of high courts concerned and Mr. Justice Yashwant Varma. Responses received will be examined and, thereupon, the Collegium will pass a resolution,” it had said, adding, “There is misinformation and rumours being spread with regard to the incident at the residence of Mr. Justice Yashwant Varma.”

The issue rocked Parliament on Friday with Congress leader Jairam Ramesh raising it in the Rajya Sabha and Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar expressing shock and assuring a structured discussion on the issue.