Setback for Justice Yashwant Varma; Supreme Court rejects plea against formation of Parliamentary panel to probe corruption charges

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a plea by Allahabad High Court judge Justice Yashwant Varma seeking to quash the Lok Sabha Speaker’s decision to constitute a three-member committee under the Judges (Inquiry) Act to probe corruption allegations against him.

Clearing the way for the three-member inquiry committee constituted by the Lok Sabha Speaker to move ahead, a bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma ruled that Justice Yashwant Varma was not entitled to any relief in the petition filed by him.

The court rejected his arguments that the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968, required the formation of a joint committee and that the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha had no authority to refuse admission of the removal motion in the Upper House.