New Delhi, May 8: Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna, who is due to retire next week, has forwarded to the President and the Prime Minister the report of the top court-appointed "in-house" enquiry panel formed against the backdrop of the cash discovery allegations against the then Delhi High Court judge, Justice Yashwant Verma.

"Chief Justice of India, in terms of the In-House Procedure, has written to Hon’ble the President of India and Hon’ble the Prime Minister of India enclosing therewith copy of the 3-Member Committee report dated 03.05.2025 along with the letter/response dated 06.05.2025 received from Mr Justice Yashwant Varma," said a press statement released by the apex court on Thursday.

Justice Varma is embroiled in a controversy surrounding the alleged discovery of a huge pile of burnt cash in the storeroom attached to his bungalow in the national capital after the fire brigade had gone there to douse a blaze on March 14. Within two weeks, Justice Varma’s transfer from the Delhi High Court to the Allahabad HC, amid an in-house probe, was cleared by the Union government.

The CJI Khanna-led Supreme Court Collegium had recommended that the Centre repatriate Justice Varma to the Allahabad High Court. It had said that the proposal for the transfer of Justice Varma, who is the second senior-most judge in the Delhi High Court, to his parent High Court, i.e. the Allahabad High Court, where he will be the ninth in seniority, is "independent and separate from the In-house enquiry procedure".

Justice Varma was taken off judicial work before being sent to the Allahabad HC. His shift to Uttar Pradesh came despite opposition from the bar associations in Lucknow and Allahabad. While Justice Varma has denied any wrongdoing, CJI Khanna constituted a 3-member committee in the last week of March to conduct an in-house inquiry. The enquiry panel comprised 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, a judge of the Karnataka High Court.

--IANS

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