According to a news report, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna has issued a formal letter to President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi forwarding the report of a Supreme Court-appointed inquiry panel that investigates the allegations of cash being found in the house of Justice Yashwant Varma. The three-member committee prepared the report, which was submitted to the CJI on May 3. The CJI also attached along with the report, Justice Varma’s official response received on May 6, as per the in-house judicial procedure which governs the principles of natural justice.
The inquiry was triggered when, reportedly, a large sum of cash was found at the Lutyens’ Delhi residence of Justice Varma during a fire which occurred on the night of March 14. In those days, Justice Varma was a judge at the Delhi High Court. The fire incident initiated an immediate reaction from the rescue services, including the Delhi Police and Delhi Fire Service, of whom the top brass members—Sanjay Arora, the Commissioner, and Fire Chief were amongst more than 50 people, whose statements the panel recorded.
The three-member body of inquiry was composed of high-ranking judges: Chief Justice Sheel Nagu of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Chief Justice G.S. Sandhawalia of the Himachal Pradesh High Court. and Justice Anu Sivaraman of the Karnataka High Court. The committee went through an extensive analysis of the available evidence, testimonies, and related documents before concluding its findings.
Following the procedural fairness, the CJI had earlier distributed the panel’s report to Justice Varma and requested his comments. The findings and the judge’s fight back are now with the highest constitutional hands in the country. This is crucial in terms of internal accountability structures of the Indian judiciary and will likely have an impact on any subsequent judgments and actions made in the case.
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