Jairam Ramesh takes veiled dig at LS for admitting notice for removal of Justice Varma as matter pending in RS

Soon after the Lok Sabha admitted a notice on Tuesday for the removal of Justice Yashwant Varma, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh pointed to then Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar’s remarks last month that a notice for the high court judge’s removal was received by him and said “this announcement has not been expunged”.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla constituted a three-member committee to probe charges against Justice Varma after admitting the multi-party notice for his removal, setting in motion the process of impeachment of the Allahabad High Court judge.

The inquiry committee comprises Supreme Court judge Aravind Kumar, Madras High Court Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and senior Karnataka High Court advocate BV Acharya.

In a post on X, Congress general secretary in-charge (communications), Ramesh, said, “On July 21, 2025, at 16.07 hrs, the then chairman of the Rajya Sabha had made an announcement that lasted till 16.19 hrs. This announcement has not been expunged (at least not yet).” Ramesh also tagged the full text of the announcement made by Dhankhar that day.

Dhankhar had said that he received a notice for the removal of Justice Varma and asked the Secretary General to take necessary steps.

The process for the removal of Justice Varma was set in motion on July 21 with parliamentarians submitting notices to the presiding officers of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, and then Chairman of the Upper House Dhankhar taking note of the move.

While the notice submitted to the Rajya Sabha Chairman had signatures of 63 opposition members, the one submitted to the Lok Sabha Speaker was a bipartisan effort with 152 members, including Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, supporting the move.

In his remarks in Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Birla said, “The committee will submit its report as early as possible. The proposal (for removal of Justice Varma) will remain pending till the receipt of the report of the inquiry committee.” Birla said he had received a proposal from 146 Lok Sabha members, including Ravi Shankar Prasad and Gandhi, seeking removal of Justice Varma on July 21.

Justice Varma was repatriated from the Delhi High Court to the Allahabad High Court after burnt wads of currency notes were found at his official residence here on March 14.