Please quit, Justice Varma
Abhishek Manu Singhvi is a member of parliament, jurist, former additional solicitor general of India and national spokesperson of the Congress party. He is also a senior advocate of the Supreme Court; former chairperson, parliamentary committee on law & justice; former chairperson, Ficci Indo-USA parliamentary forum; writer, speaker and media commentator. LESS ... MORE
His fate is in Parliament's hands now, and the odds are stacked against him. The first-ever sacking of an HC judge would be degrading for the judiciary's position
I was deeply saddened and shocked by the extraordinary discovery at Justice Yashwant Varma's residence in March. A man of enviable legal competence, great judicial efficiency, equable temperament and balance on the Bench, his visage had come to embody calm, reasoned authority.
When the first firefighters arrived on the scene, they found several bags of unaccounted cash among the burnt remains. This appears not only to be the finding of the in-house inquiry but also the admitted position, since the judge's defence is that the outhouse was not in his exclusive control.
Read the full story on TOI+.
Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author's own.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
21 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Punjab: Ludhiana West assembly bypoll sees 33% voter turnout till 1pm
A voter turnout of 33.42% was recorded till 1pm in the polling for the Ludhiana West Assembly byelection in Punjab on Thursday. Polling began under tight security at 7am and it will continue till 6pm. The counting of votes will be held on June 23. The Ludhiana West assembly seat fell vacant following the death of AAP MLA Gurpreet Bassi Gogi in January. There are 14 candidates in the fray and 1,75,469 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise. Of them, 85,371 are women and 10 belong to the third gender. AAP candidate Sanjeev Arora reached a polling station along with his family members to exercise his franchise in the morning. Before casting their votes, the Aroras paid obeisance at a gurdwara, a temple and the Dargah Pir in Phillaur. Speaking to reporters, Arora appealed to the people to come out in large numbers to vote. Congress candidate Bharat Bhushan Ashu, BJP nominee Jiwan Gupta and Shiromani Akali Dal's Parupkar Singh Ghuman also cast their votes. Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann took to social media to urge voters to cast their vote. 'My appeal to the voters of Ludhiana West is that you must exercise your right to vote. You must fulfil your duty for the development and progress of your area. Do not consider today a holiday, definitely go and cast your vote,' Mann posted on X in Punjabi. Ludhiana deputy commissioner-cum-district election officer Himanshu Jain also cast his vote in the bypoll. A total of 194 polling stations have been set up with live webcasting facility. Designated counters have been set up at the entrance of polling stations for voters to securely deposit their mobile devices. These counters were managed by trained volunteers using jute or cloth bag mobile holders. 'In a first-of-its-kind initiative, all polling stations in Ludhiana West have made arrangements for safe mobile phone deposit aims to enhance the voter experience while at the same time upholding the secrecy of voting,' the chief electoral officer, Punjab said in a post on X. Polling stations were equipped with poll volunteers, wheelchairs and help desk to assist voters, said officials. The voting process is being monitored in real-time from the integrated command and control centre at the district administrative complex. As many as 235 CCTV cameras have been installed at polling stations. The ruling AAP has fielded Rajya Sabha member Arora for the bypoll. Arora, 61, is a Ludhiana-based industrialist and is also known for his social work. He runs the Krishna Pran Breast Cancer Charitable Trust. The Congress has nominated former minister and Punjab Congress working president Ashu, 51. Ashu had been MLA twice from this seat in 2012 and 2017. He was defeated by Gogi by 7,512 votes in the 2022 assembly polls. The BJP candidate is a member of the core committee of Punjab BJP. Gupta was earlier the party's state general secretary. The Ludhiana West bypoll is seen as a litmus test for Mann and the ruling party's national leadership which aggressively campaigned to retain this seat.
Hans India
23 minutes ago
- Hans India
SC sets aside Madras HC directive to arrest Tamil Nadu ADGP Jayaram, transfers probe to CB-CID
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday set aside an order of the Madras High Court that had directed Tamil Nadu Police to 'secure and take action' against now-suspended Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) H.M. Jayaram in connection with the abduction of an 18-year-old teenager. Given the 'controversial circumstances' and no objection offered by the Tamil Nadu government, a Bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Manmohan directed that the matter be handed over to CB-CID (Crime Branch- Criminal Investigation Department) for further investigation. The Justice Bhuyan-led Bench was dealing with a special leave petition (SLP) filed by the senior IPS official seeking a stay on the impugned Madras High Court directive. During the course of the hearing on Wednesday, the apex court raised eyebrows over the suspension order issued by the Tamil Nadu Home Department and asked the state government's counsel to seek instructions on the withdrawal of the ADGP Jayaram's suspension. 'He is a senior police official. Where is the question of suspending him when he has joined the investigation? You cannot do this. This is very demoralising,' the Justice Bhuyan-led bench had remarked. After obtaining instructions from the Tamil Nadu government, senior advocate Siddharth Dave, on Thursday, submitted that ADGP Jayaram was suspended following his involvement in the alleged crime and not pursuant to the impugned order of the Madras High Court. Dave stated that the All India Service Rules provided for the suspension of an official until the completion of the probe. In view of the state government's stand, the top court, in its order, recorded that the petitioner (ADGP Jayaram) would have the option to avail his remedies against the suspension order. Further, the Justice Bhuyan-led Bench asked the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court to assign the alleged abduction case to a different Bench. On Monday, Tamil Nadu Police took ADGP Jayaram into custody as he exited the Madras High Court premises, and was immediately taken to Thiruvalangadu police station for interrogation. The senior IPS official is accused of facilitating the abduction of a minor boy by allegedly providing his official vehicle to a gang involved in forcibly separating a couple. The abduction case centres around a complaint lodged by a woman named Lakshmi, whose elder son had married a woman from Theni district against her family's wishes. The couple reportedly went into hiding, fearing retaliation. In an attempt to locate the couple, members of the woman's family, allegedly aided by hired men, barged into Lakshmi's home and abducted her younger son in their absence. The boy was later found abandoned near a hotel, injured and traumatised. Subsequent investigation revealed that an official car linked to ADGP Jayaram was allegedly used in the abduction, prompting the Madras High Court to take direct, immediate action against the senior IPS official. On Tuesday, the matter reached the Supreme Court, and a bench of Justices Bhuyan and Manmohan agreed to hear the SLP on June 18. His lawyer said: "Yesterday, an ADGP rank officer was arrested on the direction of the Madras High Court. The SLP has been filed today at 10 a.m. Kindly list the matter for urgent hearing." As per the SLP filed before the apex court, there was absolutely no material on record warranting his custodial interrogation, and the 'arbitrary and prejudicial directions' were issued without due process, infringing his fundamental right to equality before the law and protection of life and personal liberty. Pertinently, the state's government on Wednesday submitted before the top court that ADGP Jayaram was not arrested since he joined the investigation.
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
24 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Wife's WhatsApp chats can be used as evidence in divorce: MP High Court
The Madhya Pradesh High Court has held that a woman's private WhatsApp chats, accessed without her consent, can still be admissible as evidence in divorce proceedings under Section 14 of the Family Courts Act, 1984, LiveLaw reported. The court emphasised that while the right to privacy is enshrined as a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution, it is not absolute and can be subject to reasonable restrictions—particularly when it clashes with another constitutional guarantee: the right to a fair trial. What is the case? The case involved a couple from Gwalior who got married on December 1, 2016. They had a daughter the following year. But the relationship soon soured. In 2018, the husband moved court, seeking divorce under Section 13 of the Hindu Marriage Act. He alleged cruelty and adultery, backing his claims with WhatsApp chats retrieved from his wife's phone via an app he had installed without her knowledge. These chats, he claimed, proved that she was involved in an extramarital affair. The family court in Gwalior allowed the chats to be admitted as evidence in April 2024. Meanwhile, the wife challenged this order in the high court, arguing that her fundamental right to privacy had been breached and that the chats were gathered illegally, violating Sections 43, 66, and 72 of the Information Technology Act. Her counsel argued that the husband's act of installing spyware on her phone was unlawful and that evidence collected through such methods should be deemed inadmissible. The high court, however, disagreed. What did the court say? While recognising the wife's right to privacy, the bench stated that in matters of legal dispute, the right to a fair trial holds equal—if not greater—weight. The court leaned on important Supreme Court verdicts, including Sharda v Dharmpal and Justice KS Puttaswamy v Union of India, to make its point. 'It is a settled concept of fair trial that a litigating party gets a fair chance to bring relevant evidence before the court… the right to privacy may have to yield to the right to fair trial,' the court said in its judgement. The bench explained that Section 14 of the Family Courts Act was purposefully created to allow more flexibility in admitting evidence in family-related disputes, even if such evidence would not be admissible under the Indian Evidence Act, 1872. The court clarified that merely admitting such material as evidence does not imply that its content is accepted as true. That responsibility lies with the family court, which must examine the authenticity, relevance, and credibility of the chats. 'Merely admitting evidence on record is not proof of a fact-in-issue,' the high court said. 'The family court is free to either accept, discard, or assign weight to any piece of evidence during the adjudication process.' The bench further said that allowing such chats to be presented in court does not absolve the person who obtained them of legal liability. 'Such evidence must be received and treated with caution and circumspection, and the possibility of tampering must be ruled out,' it added.
