‘Misconduct found serious enough': 3-judge panel's findings about Justice Yashwant Varma's cash recovery case

Mint

5 hours ago

The misconduct found proved serious enough to call for the initiation of proceedings for the removal of High Court Justice Yashwant Varma, the three-judge panel formed to probe allegations has recommended.
The panel also found the allegation of cash recovery from Justice Varma's official residence to be true and concluded that the burnt cash was removed from the residence's storeroom.
The three-member committee, set up by the Supreme Court, had confirmed the presence of cash found at High Court judge Justice Yashwant Varma's residence in New Delhi after a fire broke out there around Holi on March 14.
On May 8, the then Chief Justice of India(CJI) Sanjiv Khanna forwarded the findings of a three-judge in-house committee set up to investigate allegations of corruption against Justice Yashwant Varma to both the President and the Prime Minister of India.
The 64-page report, first published by legal news website Bar and Bench, concludes saying that cash was recovered from the store room of Justice Varma's official residence in the national capital.
'Cash/money was found in the store room of 30 Tughlak Crescent, New Delhi officially occupied by Justice (Yashwant) Varma' and that the'access to the store room has been found to be within the covert or active control of Justice Varma and his family members and that by way of strong inferential evidence, it is established that the burnt cash/money was got removed from the store room during the wee hours of 15.03.2025 from 30 Tughlak Crescent, New Delhi'.
The panel recommended that the misconduct found proved serious enough to warrant the initiation of proceedings to remove Justice Varma.
'Keeping in view the direct and electronic evidence on record, this Committee is firmly of the view that there is sufficient substance in the allegations raised in the letter of Hon'ble the Chief Justice of India dated 22.03.2025 and the misconduct found proved is serious enough to call for initiation of proceedings for removal of Justice Yashwant Varma, Judge of the Allahabad High Court,' it said.
As many as 10 witnesses examined by the panel acknowledged having seen burnt or half-burnt currency notes, the report said
'As I entered, I noticed that on the right hand side and in front, there was large pile of cash only of Rs. 500/- denomination lying on the floor. I am not sure whether any such notes of Rs. 500/- denomination were there on the ledge or not. I was shocked and surprised such large amount of cash which was strewn on the floor, which I saw for the first time in my life,' said a witness quoted in the report.
The President has referred the former CJI's recommendation to the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha Speaker, according to media reports.
At least 50 members need to back the impeachment motion against a judge of the constitutional court to be considered in the Rajya Sabha. In the Lok Sabha, it has to be backed by at least 100 members.
If Justice Varma is removed, he will be the first judge of a constitutional court to be sacked.
The process of impeachment is likely to be initiated by the offices of the Lok Sabha Speaker and the Rajya Sabha Chairman in the upcoming session of the Parliament. The Monsoon session of Parliament to be held from July 21 to August 12.
Here is what else the report by the three-judge panel has said:
-The burden to prove this assertion was upon this Committee. This burden has been discharged by this Committee by recording the aforesaid findings based on statements of eyewitnesses corroborated by electronic evidence of still photographs and videos, which have been proved to have been shot by the said eyewitnesses at the coordinates which coincide with the location of the store room. More so, the discussion supra reveals a number of corroborative pieces of evidence to establish that the burnt currency notes were seen and found in the store room by the firemen as well as police personnel.
-It is only when this Committee found the factum of burnt currency having been seen and found in the store room to be established, the burden shifted upon Justice Varma to raise his defence by disproving the aforesaid factum. As explained above, Justice Varma has failed to discharge this burden, compelling this Committee to hold that the burnt cash was found in the store room in the night intervening 14/15.03.20."
-Where presence of burnt cash in the store room is established, it is for Justice Varma to account for the same by either successfully raising a defence of planting of cash in the store room which he failed to do or proving the defence of conspiracy theory by adducing evidence/material that the money/cash did not belong to him but to someone else by disclosing the identity of the real owner of the cash. Not having done so, Justice Varma cannot be helped and therefore, this Committee holds that the money/cash was found in the store room located within the premises of 30 Tughlak Crescent, New Delhi occupied by Justice Varma, the source of which could not be accounted for by Justice Varma.
The misconduct found proved serious enough to warrant the initiation of proceedings to remove Justice Varma.
-In the absence of any plausible explanation coming from Justice Varma or his family members or for that matter any other witness, this Committee is left with no option, but to hold that the trust reposed in him was belied by him by allowing highly suspicious material in the shape of piles of currency notes to be stashed in the store room. Whether this stashing was done with tacit or explicit consent of Justice Varma or his family members is of little significance in the face of larger concept of breach of public trust and property expected of the high constitutional office held by Justice Varma,' the panel held.