Supreme Court Posts Video of Large Amount of Cash Discovered in Delhi HC Judge’s Residence

Meanwhile, the chief justice of India has formed a three-member committee to inquire into the allegations against Justice Yashwant Varma.

New Delhi: While announcing a probe into the alleged discovery of a large amount of cash from a room damaged by fire on the premises of Delhi high court Justice Yashwant Varma’s official residence, the Supreme Court has made public a video showing the presence of currency in the gutted room.

It also made public late on Saturday (March 23) Justice Varma’s response to the developments to Delhi high court chief Justice Devendra Upadhyaya, in which he denied ever placing cash into the room and alleged the presence of a conspiracy in its discovery.

In a press release, the Supreme Court said that Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna had formed a three-member committee comprising Punjab and Haryana high court chief Justice Sheel Nagu, Himachal Pradesh high court chief Justice G.S. Sandhawalia and Karnataka high court Justice Anu Sivaraman to inquire into the allegations against the judge.

Justice Upadhyaya had, for the time being, “been asked not to assign any judicial work” to Justice Varma, the press release also said.

Appended to its press release was a letter written by Justice Upadhyaya to CJI Khanna on Friday, where he said that he was “of the prima facie opinion that the entire matter warrants a deeper probe”.

He noted that as per Delhi’s police commissioner, a guard posted at Justice Varma’s residence said after the fire that “partially burnt articles were removed from the room where the fire had broken out” on the morning of March 15.

“The enquiry conducted by me, prima facie, does not reveal possibility of entry or access to the room by any person other than those residing in the bungalow, the servants, the gardeners and CPWD [Central Public Works Department] personnel, if any,” Justice Upadhyaya wrote to the CJI while batting for a further probe into the case.

Upon being asked by Justice Upadhyaya to account for the cash discovered in the burnt room, its origins and who had removed it on the morning of March 15, Justice Varma on Friday stated “unequivocally that no cash was ever placed in that storeroom either by me or any of my family members”.

Justice Varma said that the burnt room where the cash was found was unlocked, accessible from the residence’s entrances and “disconnected from the main residence and is surely not a room in my house” as had been said in some media reports.

“The suggestion that one would store cash in an open, freely accessible and commonly used storeroom near the staff quarters or in an outhouse verges on the incredible and incredulous,” the judge, who said he was in Bhopal when the fire occurred on the intervening night of March 14 and 15, continued.

He also claimed that no one from his home reported seeing burnt currency in the room and that what ‘baffled’ him was the “complete absence of any sacks of allegedly burnt currency which were ever recovered or seized”.

The series of events “clearly appeared to be a conspiracy to frame and malign me,” Justice Varma said, adding that his reputation and character as a judge had been “severely tarnished and irreparably damaged” and urging the high court chief justice to “absolve me of these unfounded and baseless allegations”.

Justice Upadhyaya had, after being asked to do so by CJI Khanna, requested Justice Varma to account for the discovery of the cash in writing by noon on Friday.

Justice Varma was also asked not to dispose of his mobile phone as well as not to delete or edit any conversations, messages or other data from the phone.

Three-member committee part of judicial ‘in-house’ inquiry into case

In a previous press release on Friday, the Supreme Court noted that Justice Upadhyaya began an “in-house enquiry procedure” into the case.

As per the ‘in-house procedure’ for taking remedial action against sitting judges of the high courts in the event of allegations of misconduct against them, the chief justice of the high court concerned forwards a complaint against the judge to the CJI along with the judge’s response if they feel a deeper probe is necessary.

If the CJI in turn feels that a deeper probe is required, they are to form a three-member committee comprising two chief justices of high courts other than the one the judge belongs to in addition to a high court judge.

Such an inquiry by a three-judge committee is to be “in the nature of a fact-finding inquiry” where the judge is entitled to appear before it and have a say, and not a formal judicial inquiry involving the examination and cross-examination of witnesses or representation by lawyers.

The committee either finds that there is no substance in the allegations against the judge under scrutiny; or that there is substance in the allegations and they are serious enough to call for the judge’s removal from office; or that there is substance in the allegations but they are not serious enough to require that the judge be removed.

Supreme Court had said its collegium will ‘pass a resolution’ on Justice Varma’s transfer

On Friday the Supreme Court also spoke of a proposal to transfer Justice Varma back to his parent high court in Allahabad and that it was examined by CJI Khanna along with the rest of the court’s collegium, which comprises its next four senior-most judges.

Once responses to letters written thereafter to the Supreme Court’s ‘consultee judges’, the chief justices of high courts concerned as well as Justice Varma himself would be examined, the collegium “will pass a resolution”, the communique said.

Meanwhile, the Allahabad high court bar association issued a statement titled “We are not [trash] bin”.

A member of the Supreme Court collegium had told The Wire that “we were assured by the CJI that transfer is just the beginning and follow-up action would most certainly be taken by him”.

One senior judge of the apex court also said: “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.”

Who is Justice 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 CJI.

Unless he comes to the Supreme Court, he is due to retire on January 5, 2031.

While he is not among the seniormost judges in his parent high court, in the Delhi high court he is currently a member of the three-judge collegium.

Courtesy : The Wire

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