Allahabad High Court judge Justice Yashwant Varma has filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the in-house committee report that indicted him over recovery of unaccounted cash at his official residence in Delhi.
The move followed the recent decision of the Union government to bring an impeachment motion in the Parliament for removal of Justice Varma from office.
The petitioner requested the Apex Court to declare as unconstitutional and ultra vires, the recommendation made by former Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna for his removal as a High Court judge.
He further challenged the in-house procedure on inquiry into complaints against judges on the grounds that it created an extra-constitutional and parallel mechanism, derogating from the law that exclusively vested the power for removal of High Court judges in the Parliament.
The In-House procedure did not have the safeguards as provided under the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968, he pointed out.
He said the procedure was administrative in nature and not grounded in statute or the Constitution. It could not be used to recommend removal from constitutional office.
Assailing the CJI’s letter to the President and the Prime Minister recommending his removal, the judge claimed this bypassed constitutional procedure and legislative safeguards under Articles 124 and 218.
The incident took place on March 14 this year, when Justice Varma was serving as a sitting judge at the Delhi High Court.
While extinguishing a fire at Justice Varma’s official residence, fire fighters recovered a large sum of unaccounted cash from his outhouse.
The judge and his wife were not in Delhi then. Only his daughter and aged mother were at home during the time of the incident.
A video later surfaced showing bundles of cash burning in the fire.
The incident led to allegations of corruption against Justice Varma. The judge refuted the charges and claimed it to be a conspiracy to frame him. The then CJI Sanjiv Khanna initiated an in-house probe and set up a three-member committee on March 22 to conduct the inquiry.
Justice Varma was repatriated to his parent High Court at Allahabad High Court, where he was recently administered the oath of office.
The judicial work of the judge, however, has been temporarily taken away on instructions of the CJI.
The committee, comprising Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice Sheel Nagu, Himachal High Court Chief Justice GS Sandhawalia and Karnataka High Court Justice Anu Sivaraman, started the probe on March 25 and concluded the same on May 3.
It placed the report before then CJI Khanna on May 4, indicting Justice Varna. The then CJI Khanna forwarded the report to the President, recommending Justice Varma’s impeachment.
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