Judicial probe on Justice Varma: Panel submits report to CJI on cash recovery incident

Justice Varma faced the ignominy of inquiry after the alleged recovery of cash piles at the outhouse of his official bungalow during a fire incident on March 14, when he was not available in the house.

New Delhi: A three-member judges' committee, constituted for conducting an inquiry into the allegations against Justice Yashwant Varma, then sitting judge of the Delhi High Court, has submitted its report to the Chief Justice of India on May 4, a press release from the Supreme Court said on Monday.

Justice Varma faced the ignominy of inquiry after the alleged recovery of cash piles at outhouse of his official bungalow here during a fire incident on March 14 when he was not available in the house.

The committee consisted of Justice Sheel Nagu, Chief Justice of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana, Justice G S Sandhawalia, Chief Justice of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh and Ms Justice Anu Sivaraman, judge of the High Court of Karnataka.

The committee has finalised its report on May 3 and submitted it the CJI on May 4.

The contents and findings of the report have yet not been disclosed.

As per the Supreme Court judgment in K Veeraswami Vs Union of India (1991), no criminal case can be registered against a judge of a High court or Supreme Court without the prior permission of the Chief Justice of India.

Justice Varma, then judge of the Delhi High Court faced the probe after alleged discovery of unaccounted money during the fire incident at his official residence here on the night of March 14-15.

CJI Sanjiv Khanna on March 22 ordered setting up of the panel, as part of the in-house inquiry.

The CJI also directed for withdrawing judicial work from Justice Varma, who was subsequently recommended and for repatriated to the Allahabad High Court.

Earlier, in his written response, Justice Varma denied recovery of any cash and termed the whole episode as a conspiracy. "I unequivocally state 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," he said.

In a move to ensure transparency, the CJI had earlier directed to upload the Chief Justice's report, the response of Justice Varma, and other documents, on the Supreme Court website with regard to the preliminary inquiry into the matter.