New Delhi, Mar 22: Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna has constituted a 3-member committee to conduct an inquiry against Justice Yashwant Varma of the Delhi High Court after a large amount of unaccounted cash was reportedly discovered at the latter’s residence in the national Capital.

As per media reports, a huge amount of cash was found last week when a fire brigade had gone to Justice Varma's residence to douse a fire.

“The Chief Justice of India has constituted a three-member committee consisting of Mr Justice Sheel Nagu, Chief Justice of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana, Mr Justice G.S. Sandhawalia, Chief Justice of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh, and Ms Anu Sivaraman, Judge of the High Court of Karnataka, for conducting an inquiry into the allegations against Mr Justice Yashwant Varma, a sitting Judge of the High Court of Delhi,” said in a statement released by the Supreme Court.

It added that the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court for the time being has been asked not to assign any judicial work to Justice Yashwant Varma.

“The report submitted by the Chief Justice of the High Court of Delhi, response of Mr Justice Yashwant Varma, and other documents, are being uploaded on the Supreme Court website,” the statement further said.

On Friday, CJI Sanjiv Khanna received the report prepared by the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court surrounding the allegations against Justice Varma.

In a statement, the apex court said that CJI Khanna will examine the report and process it for further and necessary action. The SC had clarified that the proposal for the transfer of Justice Varma, who is the second seniormost judge in the Delhi High Court, to his parent High Court i.e. the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, where he will be ninth in seniority, is “independent and separate from the In-house enquiry procedure”.

“The proposal was examined by the Collegium comprising of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) and four senior-most Judges of the Supreme Court on 20th March 2025, and thereafter letters were written to the consultee Judges of the Supreme Court, the Chief Justices of the High Courts concerned and Mr Justice Yashwant Varma. Responses received will be examined and, thereupon, the Collegium will pass a resolution,” it had said.

Born in January 1969, Justice Varma obtained a law degree from Rewa University and practised mainly on the civil side handling varied nature of matters relating to constitutional, industrial disputes, corporate, taxation, environment, and allied branches of law. He served as Chief Standing Counsel for the State of UP from 2012 till August 2013, when he was designated as ‘senior advocate’ by the Allahabad High Court.

Justice Varma was elevated as an Additional Judge in October 2014 and was transferred to the Delhi High Court in October 2021. At the Delhi High Court, Justice Varma is currently the second seniormost judge dealing with writ petitions challenging the constitutional validity of any law, statutory rule, regulation or notification pertaining to municipal tax.

As per the latest roster, Justice Varma-led division bench, which also comprised Justice Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar, dealt with sales tax cases and GST cases, Letters Patent Appeals, regular First Appeals (Original Side), Company Appeals, matters to be heard by Commercial Appellate Division, etc.

--IANS

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