SC refuses urgent hearing on plea seeking FIR over cash at HC judge's home

The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused an urgent mentioning of a plea seeking a direction to Delhi Police to lodge an FIR over the alleged discovery of semi-burnt stash of cash from the official residence of Delhi High Court judge Yashwant Varma.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna was urged by lawyer Mathews J Nedumpara that the plea be listed for urgent hearing before a bench as it pertained to larger public interest.

The CJI, who has stopped the practice of oral mentioning of cases for urgent listing, said that the plea would come up.

The lawyer said that the apex court has done a "commendable job" but an FIR was needed.

"Don't make public statements," the CJI said.

A woman and co-petitioner in the matter said that if such a case was against a common citizen then several probe agencies, like CBI and ED, would have been after that person.

"This is quite enough. The plea will come up accordingly," the CJI said.

A plea was filed by Nedumpara and three others on Sunday seeking a direction to police to lodge an FIR in the matter.

The plea also challenges the 1991 judgement in the K Veeraswami case, in which the top court ruled that no criminal proceedings could be initiated against a judge of the high court or the top court without the prior nod of the Chief Justice of India.

The alleged cash discovery happened following a fire at Varma's Lutyens Delhi residence at around 11.35 pm on March 14, prompting the fire officers to rush to the spot.

On Tuesday, the three members of a Supreme Court-appointed in-house committee visited the residence of Justice Varma, as it commenced its inquiry into allegations.

In the wake of the controversy, the apex court Collegium recommended the repatriation of Justice Varma, who was de-rostered by the Delhi High Court following a directive from CJI, to his parent, Allahabad High Court.

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.

Justice Varma denounced the allegations and said no cash was ever placed in the storeroom either by him or any of his family members.