Guwahati: A fire that broke out last week during Holi vacation at the residential bungalow of Delhi High Court judge Justice Yashwant Varma resulted in the recovery of alleged unaccounted money.
Sources said that, following the recovery of a pile of money, the Supreme Court collegium led by Chief Justice of India(CJI) Sanjiv Khanna decided to transfer the judge to another HC.
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When the fire broke out, Justice Varma was not in town and his family members called the fire brigade and police.
After the fire was subdued, first responders found a huge amount of cash inside a room, leading to official entries being made about the recovery of what appeared to be unaccounted money, the sources added.
Sources stated that upon getting information about the incident CJI Khanna called for an immediate meeting of collegium. The collegium was unanimous that Justice Varma needed to be transferred immediately. He has been transferred to his parent HC, Allahabad HC. He had moved from there to Delhi HC in Oct 2021.
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Sources further stated that some members of the five-judge Collegium seek the resignation of Justice Varma.
Moreover, they also stress the need for an in-house inquiry by CJI upon denial of resignation by Justice Varma, the sources added.
Notably, as per the in-house procedure devised by the Supreme Court in 1999 to deal with allegations of corruption, wrongdoing, or impropriety against constitutional court judges, CJI on receipt of a complaint, seeks a response from the judge.
He can set up the in-house probe panel comprising an SC judge and chief justices of two HCs in case he is not satisfied with the response or concludes that the matter requires a deeper probe.