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Informist, Monday, Jul. 28, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court on Monday asked Allahabad High Court Justice Yashwant Varma why he appeared before the in-house committee and waited for its report if the panel did not have the power to probe him in the issue and the same was unconstitutional. The top court questioned Justice Varma why he did not contest the case in court when the in-house committee was made against him.

 

The apex court was hearing a plea by Justice Varma against the in-house committee report that indicted him after a huge amount of cash was found at his residence during a fire in March. Justice Varma has also challenged former chief justice of India Sanjiv Khanna's recommendation to President Droupadi Murmu to initiate impeachment proceedings against him.

 

Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Justice Varma, argued that the procedure adopted against the judge was in violation of the Indian Constitution. A judge can be removed only as per Article 124 of the Constitution and not through public debates based on the report of the in-house inquiry committee, said Sibal. He argued that the inquiry committee's report cannot form the basis of a motion of impeachment against the judge. 

 

Further, Sibal said that all the actions such as release of tapes, putting it on a website, public fury, public discussion, media interaction, accusation against judge, findings by public discussing conduct of judges were all contrary to the Constitution. "Why did you appear before the inquiry committee? Did you take a chance of a favourable order there first? You are a constitutional authority. You should have come then and there and got an order," said a bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and A.G. Masih. The top court observed that that the petitioner cannot raise these issues after having participated in the inquiry by the in-house panel. 

 

This comes after the government last week announced that the Lok Sabha will soon initiate proceedings to remove Justice Varma. Over 140 members of the Lok Sabha had submitted a notice to Speaker Om Birla to initiate the proceedings to remove Justice Varma. A notice for the same was also submitted to former Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar by 63 members of the Upper House.

 

The three-member committee formed by the Supreme Court has 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, making case to initiate the impeachment proceedings, the panel said.

 

In his plea, Justice Varma contested the in-house procedure on inquiry into complaints against judges, saying that it creates a parallel, extra-constitutional mechanism that derogates from the law, exclusively vesting the power for removal of high court judges in Parliament. Varma argued that the in-house procedure does not have the safeguards as provided under the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968.

 

The in-house inquiry committee made the findings without giving him a fair opportunity to respond, said Justice Varma. The committee proceeded in a pre-determined fashion and even without finding any concrete evidence, merely drew adverse inferences against him after reversing the burden of proof, he added. 

 

In May, the 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.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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