Cash at judge’s house: CJI sets up three-judge panel to probe charges against Justice Varma

Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna on Saturday constituted a three-judge committee to probe allegations of recovery of unaccounted cash from the residence of Justice Yashwant Varma, a 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 inquiry committee consists of Punjab & Haryana High Court Chief Justice Sheel Nagu, Himachal Pradesh High Court Chief Justice GS Sandhawalia and Justice Anu Sivaraman of the Karnataka High Court, the Supreme Court said in a statement.

The decision was taken by the CJI after receiving a report from Justice Upadhyaya over the incident, sources said, adding that further course of action would be decided after submission of the report by the committee.

“The report submitted by the Chief Justice of the High Court of Delhi, response of Justice 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 at 11.35 pm on March 14 in a storeroom stocked with stationery and domestic articles at the judge’s residence. Two fire engines 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.

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 it was not linked to the in-house inquiry initiated by the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court.

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

“The proposal was examined by the Collegium comprising the Chief Justice of India and four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court on March 20, and thereafter letters were written to the consultee judges of the Supreme Court, the Chief Justices of HCs concerned and Justice 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 Justice 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.