SC repatriates Justice Varma to Allahabad High Court

The Supreme Court has officially suggested that Delhi High Court judge Justice Yashwant Varma be transferred to his original High Court in Allahabad, following the controversy after bundles of burnt cash were discovered at his residence during a fire.

“The Supreme Court Collegium, in its meetings held on 20th and 24th March, has recommended repatriation of Justice Yashwant Varma, Judge, High Court of Delhi, to the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad,” said a statement uploaded on the SC website Monday.

Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna convened the Collegium meeting on March 20 following a negative report regarding the cash discovery and a video allegedly depicting firefighters finding the cash bundles while extinguishing a fire in a storeroom connected to the residence. The Collegium reached a unanimous decision to recommend his transfer after reviewing the video, but its resolution was not posted right away.

As the controversy deepened, the SC, in a March 21 press note, said that “the proposal for transfer of Justice Yashwant Varma, who is the second senior most Judge in the Delhi High Court and a member of the Collegium, to his parent High Court, that is, the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, where he will be ninth in seniority, is independent and separate from the In-house enquiry procedure”.

Justice Varma maintains no cash was shown to the staff at his residence. “When the fire broke out around midnight, the fire service was alerted by my daughter and my private secretary, whose calls would be duly recorded. During the exercise to douse the fire, all staff and the members of my household were asked to move away from the scene of the incident in view of safety concerns. After the fire was doused and when they went back to the scene of the incident, they saw no cash or currency on site,” he said in a response to Delhi High Court Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya.