The Judges Inquiry Committee, constituted under the provisions of the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968 to examine allegations of corruption against Justice Yashwant Varma, submitted its report to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Monday.
According to an official statement issued by the Press Information Bureau (PIB), the report was handed over at Parliament House by Supreme Court judge Justice Aravind Kumar, who chaired the three-member inquiry committee. The other members of the panel, Bombay High Court Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Senior Advocate BV Acharya, were also present during the submission of the report.
The report was submitted in accordance with the statutory procedure prescribed under the 1968 Act, which governs parliamentary proceedings relating to the removal of judges of the higher judiciary on grounds of proved misbehaviour or incapacity. The report is expected to be laid before both Houses of Parliament in due course.
The inquiry committee was constituted by the Lok Sabha Speaker in August 2025 following allegations of corruption against Justice Varma, who was then serving as a judge of the Allahabad High Court.
The allegations arose after a fire incident at Justice Varma’s official residence on March 14, during which unaccounted cash was allegedly recovered from the premises. At the time of the incident, Justice Varma and his wife were reportedly travelling outside the State, while only family members were present at the residence. Subsequently, videos allegedly showing burnt currency notes surfaced publicly, triggering controversy and corruption allegations.
Justice Varma denied the allegations and maintained that he was being falsely implicated as part of a conspiracy. Following the incident, the then Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna initiated an in-house inquiry and constituted a three-member committee to conduct a preliminary fact-finding exercise.
The in-house panel comprised Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice Sheel Nagu, Himachal Pradesh High Court Chief Justice GS Sandhawalia and Karnataka High Court judge Justice Anu Sivaraman. The committee commenced proceedings in March 2025 and submitted its findings to the then CJI Sanjiv Khanna in May 2025.
After examining the in-house committee report, CJI Khanna reportedly advised Justice Varma to resign or face proceedings for removal. Since Justice Varma declined to resign, the matter was forwarded to the President of India and the Prime Minister for the initiation of the constitutional process relating to the removal of a High Court judge. During this period, Justice Varma was repatriated from the Delhi High Court to his parent High Court, and judicial work was withdrawn from him pending further action.
Subsequently, the Lok Sabha Speaker constituted the statutory Judges Inquiry Committee under the 1968 Act to examine the allegations. The committee was originally constituted with Justice Kumar, Madras High Court Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Senior Advocate BV Acharya as members. Following the retirement of Justice Shrivastava, Bombay High Court Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar was inducted into the panel.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court refused to interfere with the inquiry proceedings and upheld the authority of the Lok Sabha Speaker to constitute the inquiry committee under the statutory framework governing judicial removal proceedings.
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