Justice Varma cash discovery: Rajya Sabha chairman calls meeting of floor leaders for second day in a row

New Delhi: Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar Tuesday called a meeting of the leaders of various parties to decide the course of action the House should take on pleas by some MPs seeking discussion on the alleged discovery of cash from the official residence of a Delhi High Court judge.

Meeting of the floor leaders of various political parties will take place at 4.30 pm on Tuesday, he said after rejecting a rule 267 notice of Haris Beeran of Kerala-based IUML who wanted a discussion on the matter by setting aside the business of the day.

Dhankhar said he had on Monday met Leader of the House J P Nadda and Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge on the "very critical issue that is agitating the minds in branches of governance".

"The issue is undoubtedly serious enough," he said.

According to him, Kharge had suggested calling a meeting of floor leaders and Nadda agreed.

"The three of us took note of the developments and also took note that for the first time, in an unprecedented manner, the Chief Justice of India took the initiative to put everything in the public domain," he said.

Dhankhar was referring to the apex court uploading on its website an in-house inquiry report, including photos and a video, into the alleged discovery of a huge stash of cash at high court Yashwant Varma's official residence.

A fire at the storeroom of the official residence of Justice Varma on March 14 in posh Lutyens' Delhi locality purportedly led to the discovery of the cash by firefighters and police personnel.

Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna has constituted a three-member panel to probe the discovery of "four to five semi-burnt sacks" of Indian currency notes after the fire incident.

Stating that legislature and judiciary function optimally when they perform best in their respective realm, he said, adding the Supreme Court putting the entire material available with it in the public domain has found wide acceptability in the country.

Pramod Tiwari of the Congress said justice should not just be done but also seen to be done and so steps need to be taken to ensure such incidents are not repeated.

On cue, Dhankhar referred to the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act passed by Parliament, saying if the mechanism for judicial appointments had not been struck down by the Supreme Court, things would have been different.

The law was passed by Rajya Sabha with near unanimity, with no dissension, only one abstention and was later endorsed by the requisite 16 state assemblies and signed by the President under article 111 of the Constitution, he said.

"Now, it is befitting the occasion to reiterate (that it) was a visionary step. And imagine if that had taken place, things would have been different." "What emanated from the Indian Parliament as a historic development with rare convergence of unanimity since independence, found acceptance by needed state legislatures. We need to reflect on what happened to that," he said.

Dhankhar said under the Constitution, there is no provision that allows anyone to tinker with a Constitutional Amendment.

"There is no constitutional provision of review or appeal of a constitutional amendment. If there is a legislation (passed) by parliament or state legislatures, judicial review can take place on whether it is in conformity with the Constitutional provisions," he said.

The Rajya Sabha chairman went on to state that one is considered innocent until proven guilty, but MPs should think about the "judicial mess".

"Before the nation, there are two situations. One was what emanated from Parliament duly endorsed by state legislatures (and) sanctified by the President by appending signatures under Article 111.

"The second is a judicial order. Now we are at a crossroads. I strongly urge members to reflect. There can be no breach by any institution of what emanated from the Parliament, endorsed by the legislatures. This should, again, I reiterate, be the mechanism holding the field," he said.

Terming the present situation "extraordinarily painful", he asked the MPs to mull over the fallouts.

"We will come back to the House on this very critical important issue that concerns much beyond the judicial mess. It concerns the sovereignty of parliament and the supremacy of parliament, and whether at all we are relevant.

"If we effect an amendment in the Constitution and that is not not executable.... I have no doubt Parliament is possessed of the power, any power in any institution to ensure what emanated from the Indian parliament, sanctified by the requisite number of state legislatures, holds the field," Dhankhar added.

Kharge said that when he and Nadda met Dhankhar on Monday, he felt that leaders of various political parties should be taken into confidence before deciding on the next course of action.

The Congress president said he had requested the meeting of floor leaders, which would now take place on Tuesday afternoon.