Taking swift measures, the Supreme Court collegium on Friday commenced an initial inquiry against Delhi high court judge Justice Yashwant Varma from whose official residence a large stash of cash was allegedly discovered during a fire incident, aside from reportedly calling for his transfer to the Allahabad high court.
The initial inquiry, which is not an in-house inquiry as envisaged in Supreme Court judgments, would entail seeking of a primary report on the incident from the Chief Justice of the Delhi high court.
Acting swiftly, the collegium headed by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna held an urgent meeting where it stated to have initiated the process to transfer Justice Varma to the Allahabad high court, which is his parent high court.
It has been said the commencement of an initial inquiry was just one of the steps and the collegium might take further action in this regard.
The controversy surrounding the alleged discovery of cash from Justice Varma's official residence in the national capital and subsequent deliberations of the collegium was first reported by The Times of India.
Justice Varma's proposed transfer could come into effect after the Centre accepts the collegium's recommendation, which is yet to be sent officially.
The amount which stated to have been discovered by the Delhi fire department officials is not known yet.
According to information on the Delhi high court website, Justice Varma enrolled as an advocate on August 8, 1992. He was appointed as an additional judge of the Allahabad high court on October 13, 2014.
He took oath as a permanent judge of the Allahabad high court on February 1, 2016, before being appointed as a judge of the Delhi high court on October 11, 2021.
He is currently heading a division bench, dealing with cases of sales tax, GST, company appeals and other appeals of the original side.
In a related development, Justice Varma, the second senior-most judge of the Delhi high court, did not hold the court on Friday -- a development shared to advocates by his court master.
Delhi high court Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya expressed pain and shock over the incident when a senior advocate mentioned the issue before the bench.
The apex court collegium is said to have swung into action after it was intimated by certain government officials about the alleged discovery of huge cash from Justice Varma's residence following a major fire there.
There have been reports that a few senior collegium members sought stricter action against Justice Varma aside from his transfer.
They reportedly said the apex court collegium should seek his resignation and if that is refused, an in-house inquiry, as envisaged in top court judgments, could be launched against Justice Varma.
The top court already has an in-house inquiry mechanism in place to deal with allegations against judges of the constitutional courts.
As per the in-house enquiry procedure, the CJI, after a preliminary inquiry, can form a committee of three Supreme Court judges to enquire into the matter after seeking the response of the judge concerned.
Based on the report of the panel, further action can be taken.
A judge of a constitutional court can be removed from office only through an impeachment motion passed by Parliament.
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