- Friday, March 21, 2025
The alleged recovery of cash from Delhi High Court judge Justice Yashwant Varma’s official residence happened on March 14, when fire and police were trying to douse the fire
By: India Weekly
THE SUPREME COURT collegium has initiated the process to transfer Delhi High Court judge Justice Yashwant Varma to the Allahabad High Court following the alleged recovery of a large stash of cash on March 14 during a fire emergency at his official residence in Delhi.
The five-member collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, held an urgent meeting following the reported incident and decided to initiate the process of shifting Justice Varma out of the Delhi High Court.
Justice Varma’s proposed transfer can come into effect after the Centre accepts the collegium’s recommendation, which is yet to be sent officially.
The collegium can also take further follow-up action, if required.
In a related development, Justice Varma, the second senior-most judge of the Delhi High Court, did not hold the court on Friday (21), news shared to advocates by his court master.
A senior advocate also mentioned Justice Varma’s issue before Delhi High Court Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya, expressing pain and shock over the incident.
Justice Upadhyaya shared the view and said, “So is everybody. We are conscious of the…”
The apex court collegium is said to have swung into action after it was intimated by certain government officials about the recovery of huge cash from Justice Varma’s residence following a major fire there.
According to media reports the fire incident occurred on March 14 and two fire vehicles were deployed.
Justice Varma was not home and fire tenders and police who reached the spot to douse the flames allegedly stumbled on the money in a room, the Indian Express reports.
There have been reports that a few senior collegium members wanted stricter action against Justice Varma besides his transfer.
They are stated to be of the view that the apex court collegium should seek his resignation and if that is refused, an in-house inquiry, as envisaged in top court judgements, could be launched against Justice Varma.
Born on January 6, 1969, Justice Varma was appointed as an additional judge of the Allahabad High Court on October 13, 2014.
As per the information available on Delhi High Court’s website, Justice Varma took oath as a permanent judge of the high court on February 1, 2016, before being appointed as a judge of the Delhi High Court on October 11, 2021.
He was enrolled as an advocate on August 8, 1992.
After the news of the reported cash recovery came to light, senior advocate Indira Jaising wrote on X, “Collegium must immediately disclose the amount of money recovered to stop speculation.”
Issue raised in Rajya Sabha
The matter was raised in the Rajya Sabha on Friday (21), with chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar saying he will find a mechanism for holding a structured discussion on the issue.
Raising the issue in the morning session, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh also sought the Chair’s response on judicial accountability and reminded him about a pending notice regarding impeachment of a judge of the Allahabad High Court.
“This morning, we have read about a shocking case of huge amounts of cash unearthed at the residence of a judge of the Delhi High Court,” Ramesh said.
He also pointed out that earlier, 50 members of Parliament had submitted a notice to the chairman regarding certain remarks that were made by a judge of the Allahabad High Court.
Ramesh said the chairman himself has repeatedly spoken about the urgency for judicial accountability.
The senior Congress member also sought to remind Dhankhar that he had directed the Leader of the House on this issue.
“I request that you please make some observations on this and give necessary directions to the government to come up with a proposal for increasing judicial accountability,” he added.
On the issue related to alleged recovery of the cash, Dhankhar said what “bothers” him is that the incident happened but did not come to light immediately.
He said if such an incident was related to a politician, a bureaucrat or an industrialist, the person concerned would have become a ‘target’ immediately.
“And, therefore, systemic response, which is transparent, accountable, effective, I am sure will be on the way” he said.
The chairman further said he will get in touch with the Leader of the House and Leader of the Opposition and find a mechanism for a structured discussion during course of the session.
On the impeachment matter, the chairman said he had received a representation from 55 members of the Rajya Sabha.
Dhankhar further informed the members that he has taken all necessary steps to get verification from the signatories to the representation.
‘Not a trash bin’
The Allahabad High Court Bar Association on Friday (21) opposed the transfer of Delhi High Court sitting judge Justice Yashwant Varma saying it was not a “trash bin”.
In a resolution passed soon after the news of the judge’s transfer by a Supreme Court collegium was reported, the association said, “We were taken aback that the Supreme Court has transferred Justice Yashwant Varma back to Allahabad High Court…” (PTI)
