SC-Appointed Committee Submits Report To Chief Justice Over Allegations Against Justice Yashwant Varma
A three-judge panel set up by the Supreme Court has submitted its inquiry report to Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna on the cash discovery allegations against Allahabad High Court judge Justice Yashwant Varma.
The three-member committee, comprising Justice Sheel Nagu, Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court; Justice G S Sandhawalia, Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court; and Justice Anu Sivaraman of the Karnataka High Court, finalised its report on May 3.
The report was submitted to the Chief Justice on May 4 for further actions, if any, against Yashwant Varma and contains the findings of the panel into the alleged cash discovery following a fire at his residence on March 14.
The fire officials had rushed to Varma's Lutyen's Delhi residence after a call was made regarding a fire incident and doused it.
The controversy was raised following a news report in the cash discovery row, that led to several steps, including a preliminary inquiry by Delhi High Court Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya.
The judicial work was also taken from Justice Varma in the Delhi High Court and later he was transferred to the Allahabad High Court.
"The three-member committee... constituted for conducting an inquiry into the allegations against Justice Yashwant Varma, a sitting judge, has submitted its report dated May 3 to the Chief Justice of India on May 4," the apex court said in a statement.
On March 28, the top court had asked the chief justice of the Allahabad High Court not to assign any judicial work for now to Justice Varma.
On March 24, the Supreme Court collegium recommended the repatriation of Justice Varma to his parent Allahabad High Court. The Delhi High Court had previously withdrawn work from the judge following a directive from the CJI.
Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna had also constituted a three-member committee to conduct an in-house inquiry into allegations and decided to upload on the apex court website the inquiry report of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya of the Delhi High Court.
Justice Varma has, however, denounced any insinuation and said no cash was ever placed in the storeroom either by him or any of his family members.
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