Cash row: Probe report indicts Justice Yashwant Varma, govt likely to bring impeachment motion

The Union government is likely to bring an impeachment motion against former Delhi High Court judge Justice Yashwant Varma in the upcoming monsoon session after the three-member panel set up by the Supreme Court found credence in the allegations that wads of currency notes were found at his official residence when a fire broke out there on March 14.

The report of the Supreme Court-appointed committee said several stacks of burnt notes, reportedly as high as 1.5 feet, were found scattered across the storeroom of Justice Varma’s official residence in Delhi.

The committee said in its report that the source of the money could not be accounted for by Justice Varma, and he only gave a “flat denial” and alleged a conspiracy against him.

“The factum of the burnt cash having been found in the storeroom was undeniably established, and, therefore, the burden shifted upon Justice Varma to account for the said cash by giving a plausible explanation, which he failed to do except projecting a case of flat denial and raising a plea of conspiracy,” it concluded, as reported by India Today.

The storeroom, where the cash was found, was in “covert” and “active” control of Justice Varma and his family, it said.

On the judge’s conspiracy charge, the panel concluded that no outsider could have entered the storeroom as it was kept locked.

The report also mentioned that the presence of a liquor cabinet close to the switchboard intensified the blaze and that the judge’s staff tried to remove the burnt cash from the storeroom after the fire.

‘Sufficient substance in allegations against Justice Varma’

The committee concluded in its report that there was “sufficient substance” in the allegations against Justice Varma and that they were serious enough to call for his impeachment.

“Keeping in view the direct and electronic evidence on record, this committee is formally of the view that there is sufficient substance in the allegations, and the misconduct found proved is serious enough to call for initiation of proceedings for removal of Justice Yashwant Varma,” the report said.

The then Chief Justice of India, Sanjiv Khanna, had asked Justice Varma to resign, but he refused, sources said.

The CJI had then written to the president and the prime minister, recommending his impeachment after the in-house inquiry panel indicted Varma, though its findings were not made public, say reports.