New Delhi: The Supreme Court has initiated an in-house enquiry into the allegations of large sum of unaccounted cash from the residence of Delhi High Court Justice Yashwant Varma. The apex court has also issued a statement over “misinformation” regarding the incident, stating that the proposal to transfer is separate from the in-house enquiry procedure.
In a press release, the top court said that there is misinformation and rumours being spread with regard to the incident at the residence of Justice Varma. “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,” it stated.
The court said that the proposal was examined by the collegium comprising of the Chief Justice of India and four senior most judges of the Supreme Court, and thereafter letters were written to the consultee judges of the Supreme Court, the Chief Justices of the High Courts concerned and Justice Yashwant Varma.
It said that responses received will be examined and, thereupon, the collegium will pass a resolution.
According to available information, a fire had broke out in the residential bungalow of Justice Varma, following which the family members called the fire brigade and the police. This is what led to the alleged discovery of the cash.
Earlier today, The Wire reported the Supreme Court collegium had met on Thursday (March 20) to discuss the accidental revelations and had pushed Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna for “strictest-possible” action against Varma, a senior judge of the top court and also a member of the collegium, including the initiation of an in-house inquiry and impeachment proceedings against the judge.
Sources told The Wire that there is video evidence to suggest the recovery of cash, although this could not be verified independently. Sources, however, claimed that the collegium knew about this video evidence.
After much pondering and deferring to the wishes of the CJI, the collegium had decided that Varma should be transferred to the Allahabad high court, his parent court. However, this did not go down well with Allahabad High Court Bar Association. In an strong-worded open letter, the Association questioned whether “the Allahabad High Court is a trash bin?” and also raised the issue of shortage of judges in the Allahabad high court.
Justice Verma was originally elevated as a judge in the Allahabad High Court and was transferred to the Delhi High Court in October 2021.
