Cash discovery at Delhi HC judge's home: Chief Justice expresses shock, says 'conscious'

New Delhi: Delhi High Court Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya on Friday expressed shock after an alleged incident of cash discovery at the official residence of its sitting judge Justice Yashwant Varma came to light.

The chief justice's reaction came when a senior lawyer mentioned before the top judge's court that he and many other lawyers were pained and shaken by the incident and urged the top judge to take some steps on the administrative side.

After the lawyer said many in the bar were "shaken" by the development, Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya lamented, "So is everybody. We are conscious".

Senior advocate Arun Bhardwaj urged before a bench comprising the chief justice and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela to take some steps to stop such incidents from occurring in the future.

"Today's incident has pained us a lot, many of us. Please take some steps on the administrative side so that these incidents do not happen in future and the truthfulness of the judicial system is maintained," Bhardwaj said.

He added, "We respect the system a lot. Each of the judges are respected a lot. We are shaken my lords and demoralised. Please take some steps. I am not expressing my pain any further and I am sure I am expressing the pain of many of my brothers. Please take some steps to see that such incidents do not happen".

The purported discovery of cash followed a major fire at the residence.

At around 11 am, the court master of Justice Varma's court announced that the division bench was on leave on Friday and any urgent mentioning could be made before another bench.

The Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna has commenced an initial inquiry against Justice Varma and reportedly decided to transfer him from the Delhi High Court to his parent Allahabad High Court following the incident.

The initial inquiry, which is not an in-house inquiry as envisaged in Supreme Court judgements, would entail seeking of a primary report on the incident from the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court.

Justice Varma was currently heading a division bench, which was dealing with cases of sales tax, goods and services tax, company appeals and other appeals of the original side.

He was enrolled as an advocate on August 8, 1992. The judge was appointed as an additional judge of the Allahabad High Court on October 13, 2014.

According to official information, he took oath as a permanent judge of the Allahabad High Court on February 1, 2016 and was appointed as a judge of the Delhi High Court on October 11, 2021.