Maneesh Chhibber 
New Delhi: When the Supreme Court Collegium met on Thursday (March 20) to discuss the serious issue of accidental discovery of substantial piles of cash from the official residence of Justice Yashwant Varma, a senior judge of the Delhi high court and a member of its collegium, a majority of the members of the Supreme Court Collegium pushed Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna for “strictest-possible” action, including the initiation of an in-house inquiry and impeachment proceedings against the judge.
The Wire has learnt that least one Supreme Court judge even asked the CJI if he had called the judge and sought his resignation, or considered asking the Delhi high court chief justice to withdraw work from him.
However, finally, deferring to the wishes of the CJI, it was decided that, to begin with, the erring judge could be transferred back to his parent high court – the Allahabad high court. The Allahabad High Court Bar Association has reacted strongly to this, releasing a statement titled, “We are not trash bin.”
The Allahabad High Court Bar Association’s statement.
While all five judges who are members of the Supreme Court Collegium – CJI Khanna, Justice Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai, Justice Surya Kant, Justice Abhay S. Oka and Justice Vikram Nath – agreed to the transfer resolution, some of them felt that unless stricter action was initiated, it would further erode public faith in the higher judiciary.
“We were assured by the CJI that transfer is just the beginning and follow-up action would most certainly be taken by him. That is why we agreed to his proposal to transfer the judge back to the Allahabad high court,” a member of the Supreme Court Collegium told this reporter.
News of the “abrupt transfer” of the judge was first broken by this reporter.
According to available information, after a fire broke out in one part of the judge’s house, a huge amount of cash was found lying in that area.
While sources asserted that there is video evidence to suggest the recovery of cash, this could not be verified independently. Sources, however, claimed that the Supreme Court Collegium knew about this video evidence.
According to sources, the possibility of some of the cash having been burnt in the fire could not be ruled out.
“We have to send out a strong message that any kind of nefarious activities won’t be tolerated. By deciding to merely transfer him back to his parent high court, what are we trying to say? That we have a different set of rules when it comes to our own? Hopefully, now that everything is in the open, the CJI and others will do something that should have been done in the first place. To begin with, work must be withdrawn from him,” said a senior Supreme Court judge.
This judge also pointed to the fact that in dozens of cases citizens, including politicians, have spent months behind bars merely on the charge that they were part of some scam involving cash.
“But here we have a case where cash was found at a sitting judge’s house. Was our response adequate?” he asked.
According to sources, the Supreme Court Collegium was under pressure to meet again today – all top five judges began court late today, possibly to attend another meeting of the Collegium – and revise its recommendation.
“We have been told that once he is transferred back, work could be withdrawn from him and thereafter an in-house inquiry could be started. My question is: couldn’t the same have been done while he is here? The SCC has already received a lot of negative publicity for having been unable to take decisive action against Allahabad high court judge Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav over his hate speech. Do we want more?” wondered this senior judge.
While there have been suggestions that the CJI has initiated an inquiry against Justice Yadav after he refused to back down from his stated remarks and asserted he had done nothing wrong through his utterances, the judge continues to hold court and pass orders.
“As things stand, Justice Yadav will, in all likelihood, retire in April next year without any adverse proceedings coming to fruition. Already there are questions about the manner in which the Supreme Court Collegium functions. The case of Justice Varma is only going to add to the negative perception about the higher judiciary. Our response could certainly have been stronger,” observed the Supreme Court judge quoted above.
Who is Justice Yashwant Varma?
Appointed additional judge of the Allahabad high court on October 12, 2014 and made permanent on February 1, 2016, Justice Varma was transferred to the Delhi high court on October 11, 2021 when Justice N.V. Ramana was the CJI. Unless he comes to the Supreme Court, he is due to retire on January 5, 2031. While he is not among the senior-most judges in his parent high court, in the Delhi high court, he is currently a member of the three-judge collegium.