Cash stash proves Justice Yashwant Varma guilty, must go: SC panel

The Supreme Court-appointed inquiry committee has recommended the removal of Justice Yashwant Varma of the Allahabad High Court after concluding that “bundles of cash” were indeed recovered from the storeroom of his official residence in Delhi and later removed under suspicious circumstances.

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His silence, missing plaint raise red flags

Burnt currency notes found at Justice Varma’s Delhi house after a fire incident, later removed suspiciously

Only Justice Varma and his family had access to the room; he didn’t report cash recovery to police or superiors

55 witnesses, including fire men, confirmed cash presence

Justice Varma gave contradictory statements; his secretary ‘pressured’ firefighters to omit details of cash recovery

Judge agreed to repatriation without any objections

Panel found serious misconduct justifying removal proceedings against the judge

The report, accessed by The Tribune, stated, “This committee is firmly of the view that there is sufficient substance in the allegations raised in the letter of Chief Justice of India dated March 22 and the misconduct found proved is serious enough to call for initiation of proceedings for the removal of Justice Yashwant Verma, judge of the Allahabad High Court.” Notably, the SC panel had submitted its findings to the then CJI on May 4.

The controversy began with a fire at Justice Varma’s Tughlaq Road bungalow on March 14, which prompted the dispatch of two fire tenders. Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze but discovered burnt currency notes amidst stationery and domestic items in a storeroom. The discovery triggered national outrage and judicial scrutiny.

The three-member inquiry panel, comprising Chief Justices Sheel Nagu (Punjab & Haryana High Court), GS Sandhawalia (Himachal Pradesh High Court), and Anu Sivaraman (Karnataka High Court), found that the cash, reportedly stacked up to 1.5 feet high, was kept in the storeroom and removed from the premises during the early hours of March 15, hours after the incident.

The report asserts that access to the room was exclusively with Justice Varma and his immediate family. It concluded that the judge's conduct was “unnatural”, particularly his failure to lodge a police complaint or inform senior judicial authorities, a lapse that further raised red flags about his role.

The committee, which met multiple times between March 25 and April 27 at the Haryana State Guest House in Delhi, recorded the statements of 55 witnesses, including Justice Varma himself. Several witnesses confirmed the presence of large volumes of cash inside the residence. Notably, the judge gave contradictory statements during his deposition, weakening his credibility.

Particular suspicion was cast on the roles of Justice Varma’s private secretary Rajinder Singh Karki and his daughter Diya Varma. Karki allegedly instructed fire personnel to omit mention of the cash in their official report and facilitated the cleaning of the site the following day. Though he denied the allegations, electronic evidence and other testimonies indicated otherwise.

The committee also took note of Justice Varma’s swift and unquestioning acceptance of his transfer back to the Allahabad High Court just six days after the fire. Earlier, in line with the in-house procedure, former CJI Khanna had written to the President and the Prime Minister, enclosing the three-member inquiry committee’s report and Justice Yashwant Varma’s response dated May 6.

If acted upon, the committee’s recommendation could bring the judiciary to a historic inflection point. No judge in independent India has ever been impeached, although in five cases, most recently in 2018 involving then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, impeachment was formally initiated but not completed.