NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused urgent mentioning of a plea seeking direction to Delhi Police to register an FIR over the alleged discovery of burnt wads of cash from the official residence of Delhi high court judge Yashwat Varma.
The Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna-led bench, however, assured petitioner advocate Mathews J Nedumpara that the plea would be listed by the registry.
“The only thing is that an FIR has to be registered against the judge. Your lordship has done a wonderful job….the publishing of the video of the burnt notes,” the petitioner said.
CJI Khanna, who has stopped the practice of oral mentioning of cases for urgent listing, said, “Don’t make public statements.”
Another petitioner in the case said if such a case was against a common citizen, then several probe agencies such as the CBI and ED would have gone after them.
“This is quite enough. The plea will come up accordingly,” the CJI said.
A fire that broke out in the residential bungalow of a Delhi high court judge resulted in recovery of a huge pile of cash, sending shock waves in judicial corridors and forcing the Supreme Court collegium led by CJI Sanjiv Khanna to decide to transfer him to high court.
When the fire broke out, Justice Yashwant Varma was not in town and his family members called the fire brigade and police. After the fire was doused, first responders found a huge amount of cash inside a room, leading to official entries being made about the recovery of what appeared to be unaccounted money.
The local cops informed their seniors who briefed the brass about the accidental discovery. Soon, the news reached the higher-ups in the government, who, in turn, informed the CJI about the hoard.
CJI Khanna took a very serious view and immediately called for a collegium meeting. The collegium was unanimous that Justice Varma needed to be transferred immediately. He has been transferred to his parent HC, Allahabad HC. He had moved from there to Delhi high court in October 2021.
However, some members of the five-judge collegium felt such a serious incident, if let off with a transfer, would not only tarnish the judiciary’s image but also erode trust in the institution. They said Justice Varma should be asked to resign and if he declined, an in-house inquiry should be initiated by the CJI, as the first step towards his removal by Parliament.
On March 22, the CJI constituted the three-member committee to conduct an in-house inquiry into allegations and decided to upload the inquiry report of Chief Justice D K Upadhyay of the Delhi high court in the incident.
It included photos and videos of the alleged discovery of a huge stash of cash.
Meanwhile, Justice Varma denounced the allegations and said no cash was ever placed in the storeroom either by him or any of his family members.
