The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the writ petition filed by Allahabad High Court judge Justice Yashwant Varma, challenging the in-house inquiry report that indicted him over the alleged recovery of a huge amount of unaccounted cash from his official residence in Delhi.
The Bench of Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice AG Masih framed six key questions for determination of the plea, including maintainability, legal procedure, violation of rights, compliance with process, communications to executive, and liberty for future.
Regarding maintainability, it held that a writ petition challenging the conduct of a sitting judge under an in-house mechanism was not maintainable.
The Apex Court noted that the constitution of the in-house committee and the procedure followed by it for inquiry into the incident was not illegal.
The in-house procedure enjoyed legal sanctity and was not a parallel mechanism outside the constitutional framework.
The Bench said it did not find any violation of the petitioner’s fundamental rights in the process.
The top court of the country further observed that former CJI Sanjiv Khanna and the in-house committee scrupulously followed the process except uploading photographs and videos, which was not required, since Justice Varma did not raise an objection then. Former CJI Khanna sending letter to the Prime Minister and the President was not unconstitutional, it noted.
While pronouncing the verdict, Justice Datta clarified that the Court had ‘tread carefully’ to ensure that no observations would prejudice the petitioner in any future proceedings.
The Apex Court left open the possibility for Justice Varma to raise grievances through appropriate remedies in the future, if required.
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