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Informist, Monday, Jul. 21, 2025

NEW DELHI – Over 140 members of the Lok Sabha Monday submitted a notice to Speaker Om Birla to initiate the proceedings to remove then Delhi High Court Justice Yashwant Varma, from whose house wads of currency notes were found following a fire incident, in March. A notice for the same was also submitted to Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar by 63 members of the Upper House.

"63 opposition MPs, including those from AAP and INDIA bloc parties, have given a notice to the Rajya Sabha Chairman for removal of Justice Varma," Congress' Rajya Sabha member Syed Nasir Hussain said. 

As per procedure, a motion to remove a judge  has to be signed by not less than 100 members in the Lok Sabha and 50 in the Rajya Sabha. If the motion is admitted, the Speaker or the Chairman forms a three-member committee in accordance with the Judges Inquiry Act comprising a senior judge of the Supreme Court, a sitting Chief Justice of a High Court, and a distinguished jurist to probe the allegations levelled against the judge. The committee would submit its report within three months. 

The report will be tabled in Parliament and both the houses will hold discussion on the removal motion followed by a voting on the motion. 

In May, a three-member committee formed by the Supreme Court had submitted its report to then chief justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, following its enquiry into allegations that a huge pile of cash was found at Justice Varma's residence after a fire broke out at his place in March.

While Justice Varma denied allegations against him, a three-member committee formed by the Supreme Court to probe the matter had said that the half-burnt currency notes found in the storeroom of Justice Varma's house could not have been there without the active consent of the judge and his family. It was impossible for the currency to be planted in the storeroom of his residence, which was monitored by the security, it said.

The committee said that while there might be no direct proof linking the high court judge to the stash, "strong inferential evidence" suggested his "covert or active control" over the money, which belied the trust reposed in him. This amounted to serious judicial misconduct, meriting initiation of impeachment proceedings, the panel said.

The in-house inquiry committee made the findings without giving him a fair opportunity to respond, said Justice Varma.

Following the cash recovery, the top court's collegium transferred Justice Varma from the Delhi High Court to the Allahabad High Court. Further, then chief justice asked Allahabad High Court's Chief Justice Arun Bhansali not to assign any judicial work to Justice Varma, when he assumed charge as a judge of that court.  End

Reported by Kuldeep Singh

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

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