New Delhi: The in-house committee constituted to probe the allegations of cash discovery at Justice Yashwant Varma’s residence has indicted the judge in its report submitted to Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna.
According to highly placed sources, he has to resign, and if he does not, then the report will be sent to the President recommending his impeachment.
“The report has indicted him. As per procedure, the CJI has called upon him. The first option given to him is to resign. If he resigns, it is good. If he does not, then the report will be sent to the President recommending impeachment,” the source told Bar & Bench.
It is also understood that Justice Varma has been given time till Friday, May 9, to respond to the CJI.
The committee constituted by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna comprised Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice Sheel Nagu, Himachal High Court Chief Justice GS Sandhawalia, and Karnataka High Court Justice Anu Sivaraman.
The panel had started the probe on March 25 and submitted its report to CJI Khanna on May 4.
A fire at Justice Varma’s house on the evening of March 14 had allegedly led to the recovery of unaccounted cash by the fire fighters.
Justice Varma and his wife were not in Delhi then and were travelling in Madhya Pradesh. Only his daughter and aged mother were at home when the fire broke out.
A video later surfaced showing bundles of cash burning in the fire.
The incident led to allegations of corruption against Justice Varma, who denied the accusation and said that it appeared to be a conspiracy to frame him. The CJI then initiated an in-house probe into the allegations and set up the three-member committee on March 22 to conduct the inquiry.
The video of the burnt cash was shared by the Delhi Police Commissioner with the Chief Justice of the High Court. It was then made public by the Supreme Court, which also in an unprecedented development, published a preliminary report of the Delhi High Court Chief Justice on the incident along with Justice Varma’s response.
Following the allegations, Justice Varma was sent back to his parent High Court, the Allahabad High Court, where he was recently administered the oath of office.
However, the judicial work of the judge has been temporarily taken away on the instructions of the CJI. The Allahabad High Court Bar Association had earlier gone on strike to protest Justice Varma’s repatriation.
Considering the pendency of the in-house probe, the Supreme Court on the judicial side refused to entertain a plea seeking the registration of a First Information Report (FIR) against Justice Varma.
Soon after the in-house probe started, Justice Varma reportedly sought legal advice from a team of senior lawyers, Senior Advocates Siddharth Agarwal and Arundhati Katju, and Advocates Tara Narula, Stuti Gujral, and one other lawyer had visited his residence.
