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Informist, Monday, Mar. 24, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – The Delhi High Court Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya on Monday withdrew Justice Yashwant Varma from judicial work with immediate effect, days after a huge pile of cash was allegedly found at his residence. On Saturday, the top court had formed a three-member committee to conduct an inquiry into allegations against Justice Varma and had asked the high court's chief justice to not assign any judicial work to Justice Varma for the time being.

 

On Mar. 14, a huge pile of cash was found at Justice Varma's bungalow after a fire broke out at his residence. When the fire broke out, Justice Varma was not in town and his family members called the fire brigade, which allegedly found the cash and later, the police were informed. 

 

Thereafter, Delhi High Court Chief Justice Upadhyaya, on receiving the information, had commenced an in-house enquiry. According to Chief Justice Upadhyay's report, half-burnt cash was found lying in some sacks in the room where the fire had broken out. Photographs and videos of the burnt cash were uploaded by the apex court on its website. 

 

According to the report, prima facie, the inquiry does not reveal the possibility of entry or access to the room by any person other than those residing in the bungalow, the servants, the gardeners, and Central Public Works Department personnel, if any. Accordingly, the Delhi High Court chief justice said in his report that prima facie, the entire matter warrants a deeper probe. After receiving the report, Chief Justice Khanna asked Justice Varma to account for the presence of cash in the room located in his premises, explain its source and sought to know who removed the cash from that place.

In his response, Justice Varma said after the fire was doused and he went back to the scene of the incident, he saw no cash or currency at the site. No cash was ever placed in that storeroom either by him or his family members, Varma said, and strongly denounced the suggestion that the alleged cash belonged to him. He further denied that his family members had removed the cash from the premises. On being shown the photographs shared by the police commissioner, Varma expressed apprehension about a conspiracy against him. Justice Varma said he would be grateful if an enquiry was conducted with respect to his functioning as a judge and the perception of the legal fraternity.

 

On Thursday, Chief Justice Upadhyaya shared the photographs and the videos with Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna. Thereafter, he received a communication from the Chief Justice of India intimating the proposal to repatriate Justice Varma to the Allahabad High Court.

 

Justice Varma had enrolled as an advocate in 1992 and practised matters relating to constitutional, labour and industrial legislation, corporate law, taxation, and allied branches of law. He was a special counsel for the Allahabad High Court from 2006 till his elevation as a judge in 2014, when he became an additional judge. In 2016, Justice Varma took oath as a permanent judge in the Allahabad High Court and in 2021, he was transferred to the Delhi High Court.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Tanima Banerjee

 

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