SC collegium begins process to transfer Delhi HC judge embroiled in cash recovery row

New Delhi: The Supreme Court collegium is stated to have initiated the process to transfer Delhi High Court judge Justice Yashwant Varma to the Allahabad High Court following a major controversy over the alleged recovery of a large stash of cash from his official residence here.

The five-member collegium headed by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna held an urgent meeting following the reported incident and decided to initiate the process of shifting Justice Varma out of the Delhi High Court.

Justice Varma's proposed transfer can come into effect after the Centre accepts the collegium's recommendation, which is yet to be sent officially.

The collegium can also take further follow-up action, if required.

In a related development, Justice Varma, the second senior-most judge of the Delhi High Court, did not hold the court on Friday, a news shared to advocates by his court master.

A senior advocate also mentioned Justice Varma's issue before Delhi High Court Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya, expressing pain and shock over the incident.

Justice Upadhyaya shared the view and said, "So is everybody. We are conscious of the..." The apex court collegium is said to have swung into action after it was intimated by certain government officials about the recovery of huge cash from Justice Varma's residence following a major fire there.

There have been reports that a few senior collegium members wanted stricter action against Justice Varma besides his transfer.

They are stated to be of the view that the apex court collegium should seek his resignation and if that is refused, an in-house inquiry, as envisaged in top court judgements, could be launched against Justice Varma.

Born on January 6, 1969, Justice Varma was appointed as an additional judge of the Allahabad High Court on October 13, 2014.

As per the information available on Delhi High Court's website, Justice Varma took oath as a permanent judge of the high court on February 1, 2016, before being appointed as a judge of the Delhi High Court on October 11, 2021.

He was enrolled as an advocate on August 8, 1992.

After the news of the reported cash recovery came to light, senior advocate Indira Jaising wrote on X, "Collegium must immediately disclose the amount of money recovered to stop speculation."