Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Mar 22: The Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna constituted a three-member Committee on Saturday to conduct an inquiry into the alleged recovery of a pile of cash from the residence of Justice Yashwant Varma, a sitting Judge of Delhi High Court, and also directed the Delhi HC chief justice not to assign the judge under cloud any judicial work till the issue was settled.
The committee would consist of Chief Justice of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana Justice Sheel Nagu, Chief Justice of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh Justice GS Sandhawalia and the Karnataka High Court judge Justice Anu Sivaraman, the Supreme Court said in a press note on Saturday. The Delhi High Court Chief Justice for the time being has been asked not to assign any judicial work to Justice Varma, the Supreme Court said.
The Supreme Court collegium had commenced on Friday an initial inquiry against Justice Varma from whose official residence a large stash of cash was allegedly discovered during a fire incident. It had also ordered the immediate transfer of Justice Yashwant Varma to his parent court in Allahabad. The Supreme Court said, “The proposal for the 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 inquiry procedure.”
The Allahabad High Court Bar Association opposed the alleged ‘proposed repatriation’ of Justice Yashwant Varma questioning whether the apex court considered the Allahabad High Court a “trash bin.” “This decision of the Collegium of the Supreme Court raises a serious question as to whether the Allahabad High Court is trash bin? This matter becomes important when we examine the current situation wherein the Allahabad High Court is short of judges,” the letter issued by Anil Tiwari, president of the bar association, reads, while adding that new judges have not been appointed for “many years”. “We are not ready to accept corruption,” it added.
The apex court said the report submitted by the Delhi High Court Chief Justice, response by Justice Varma, and other documents, were being uploaded on the Supreme Court website. The allegation that a huge pile of cash was found at Justice Varma’s house surfaced soon after a fire incident at his property. Firefighters reached there and controlled the blaze, and that was when they allegedly saw the cash pile. The amount allegedly discovered by the firefighters is not known.
Senior lawyer Harish Salve, who calls himself a “trenchant critic” of the collegium system, had stated on Friday it was “not equipped” to deal with cases like the alleged recovery of a huge pile of cash at the home of the Delhi High Court judge. Mr Salve alleged the Delhi fire chief has said there was no recovery of cash from the judge’s bungalow, giving rise to an “odd and murky” situation.
