SC orders internal probe after cash found at Justice Yashwant Varma's home

The SC Collegium had earlier decided to transfer Justice Varma back to the Allahabad High Court, where he had previously served, while it decided on the next course of action

The Supreme Court (SC) of India on Friday initiated an in-house inquiry into Delhi High Court Justice Yashwant Varma after a large amount of cash was found in his home. The apex court also asked for a report on the matter from the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya, according to legal news portal Bar & Bench.

 

Following the incident, the SC Collegium decided to transfer Justice Varma back to the Allahabad High Court, where he had previously served.

 

According to the report, the in-house inquiry was given a go-ahead during a full-court meeting of all SC judges on Friday. During the meeting, it was suggested that merely transferring Justice Varma would not be sufficient and that concrete action needed to be taken. Consequently, the full court decided to initiate an in-house inquiry. Earlier, some members of the five-judge collegium had expressed concerns that a transfer alone may not be enough, given the seriousness of the incident, and that allowing Justice Varma to continue without further examination could erode public trust in the system.

 

 

Who is Justice Yashwant Varma?

 

Justice Varma was born in 1969 and earned his law degree from Rewa University in Madhya Pradesh. He became a lawyer in 1992 and worked as special counsel for the Allahabad High Court, as well as chief standing counsel for the Uttar Pradesh government.

 

In 2013, he was recognised as a Senior Advocate. The following year, in October 2014, he was appointed as an additional judge of the High Court. He became a permanent judge in February 2016.

 

Later, he was transferred to the Delhi High Court and took office on October 11, 2021.

 

Cash recovery at Justice Varma’s home

 

According to a report by The Times of India, a few days ago, a fire broke out in Justice Varma's house when he was not present, prompting his family to call the fire department and police officials. However, after the fire was extinguished, officials discovered a large stash of cash in one of the rooms. This was officially recorded as possible unaccounted money.

 

The local police informed their seniors, who then escalated the matter to higher authorities. The news quickly reached top government officials, who informed the Chief Justice. Taking the matter seriously, Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna immediately called for a collegium meeting.

 

Subsequently, the CJI-led collegium decided to transfer Justice Varma to the Allahabad High Court. Meanwhile, the Allahabad High Court Bar Association and Judges of the Allahabad High Court have opposed the transfer, saying they were not a ‘trash bin’ and did not condone ‘corruption’.