Supreme Court releases inquiry report against Justice Yashwant Varma

The Supreme Court on Saturday (March 22) published the inquiry report submitted by the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court regarding Justice Yashwant Varma on its website. The published report comes hours after the SC issued a press release stating that the Delhi High Court Chief Justice had been instructed to refrain from allotting any judicial work to Justice Varma pending the completion of the inquiry into the allegations levelled against him.  Justice Varma is accused of stocking a large amount of cash at his residence. The incident came to light when the fire broke out at his official residence. His family members called in firefighters and the police to control the blaze. After the fire was doused, officials reportedly discovered a massive stack of cash in one of the rooms. 

 

 

The report, which runs into 25 pages also includes the response given by Justice Varma, in which he completely refuted the allegations against him.  

Visuals of burnt cash from Justice Varma's house. pic.twitter.com/YBWQ3rvTAU

— Cow Momma (@Cow__Momma) March 22, 2025

 

Along with the report, the video and photos after the fire incident have also been released in which the burning of huge amount of cash can be seen.  

Report of the Delhi High Court

 

In the report submitted to the Supreme Court, the Delhi HC Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya narrated the sequence of events happened at that day. He also attached the police commissioner's report submitted to him, in which the CP said, "In the room where the incident happened, 4-5 half burnt sacks full of Indian currency notes have been found."  The Delhi HC Chief Justice also said that he had sent his Registrar-cum-Secretary to Justice Varma's residence. "On reaching there, I found out that it was complete dark inside the room and the walls had developed cracks. We all took out our mobile phones and switched on the torch to have a look inside the room. We saw all the walls were blacked out due to fire and some material was hanging from the roof and half burnt articles were lying there and burnt articles/debris were lying on the floor. After spending 8-10 minutes in the room, we all came out," the Registrar-cum-Secretary wrote in his report. 

The report further attaches the letter written by the CJI to the Delhi HC Chief Justice asking him to question Justice Varma on following aspects:

 

(a). How does he account for the presence of money/cash in the room located in his premises?

(b). Explain the source of money/cash which was found in the said room.

(c). Who is the person who had removed the burnt money/cash from the room in the morning of March 15, 2025?  Justice Upadhyaya in his letter writes, "Accordingly, I am of the prima faice opinion that the entire matter warrants a deeper probe." 

    

Justice Varma refutes allegations 

    

The report also attaches the reply given by Justice Varma to the Delhi High Court Chief Justice. Varma completely denied the allegations. In his reply he said, "I state unequivocally that no cash was ever placed in that storeroom either by me or any of my family members and strongly denounce the suggestion that the alleged cash belonged to us." 

 

"It is a room which is completely disassociated from my living areas and a boundary wall demarcates my living area from that house. I only wish that the media had conducted some enquiry before I came to be indicted and defamed in the press," he added.

 

He further said, "I recall my apprising you of the nature of the premises and the articles which are usually put away for storage in that room. You had thereafter requested for the PPS to be permitted to visit the site and to which I had readily agreed. The PPS arrived later that night and when I, my PS along with the PPS inspected the gutted room, no currency was either found nor was any cash in any state seen present on site."

 

Justice Varma said that this appeared to be a conspiracy to frame and malign him.  CJI forms 3-member panel   

Earlier in the day, Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna constituted a three-member committee to conduct an inquiry into allegations against Justice Yashwant Varma from whose official residence a large stash of cash was allegedly discovered after a fire.

 

The inquiry committee comprises Justice Sheel Nagu, Chief Justice of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana, Justice GS Sandhawalia, Chief Justice of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh, and Anu Sivaraman, Judge of the High Court of Karnataka.

 

Justice Khanna had also asked the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court not to assign any judicial work to Justice Yashwant Varma.