Cash stash proves Justice Yashwant Varma guilty, must go: SC panel

New Delhi (TIP)- The Supreme Court-appointed inquiry committee has recommended the removal of Justice Yashwant Varma of the Allahabad High Court after concluding that “bundles of cash” were indeed recovered from the storeroom of his official residence in Delhi and later removed under suspicious circumstances.
The report, accessed by The Tribune, stated, “This committee is firmly of the view that there is sufficient substance in the allegations raised in the letter of Chief Justice of India dated March 22 and the misconduct found proved is serious enough to call for initiation of proceedings for the removal of Justice Yashwant Verma, judge of the Allahabad High Court.” Notably, the SC panel had submitted its findings to the then CJI on May 4.
The controversy began with a fire at Justice Varma’s Tughlaq Road bungalow on March 14, which prompted the dispatch of two fire tenders. Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze but discovered burnt currency notes amidst stationery and domestic items in a storeroom. The discovery triggered national outrage and judicial scrutiny.
The three-member inquiry panel, comprising Chief Justices Sheel Nagu (Punjab & Haryana High Court), GS Sandhawalia (Himachal Pradesh High Court), and Anu Sivaraman (Karnataka High Court), found that the cash, reportedly stacked up to 1.5 feet high, was kept in the storeroom and removed from the premises during the early hours of March 15, hours after the incident.