Harish Salve slams SC decision to conduct in-house probe into cash discovery row: 'Higher standards need to be applied to your own'

Justice Yashwant Varma

Former Solicitor General Harish Salve on Friday said the Supreme Court Collegium's decision to transfer Justice Yashwant Varma to the Allahabad High Court is "deeply flawed".

"Moving a judge from one court to the other is just a convenient arrangement. This is a fit occasion for the collegium to have an inquiry but not an in-house inquiry,"  Salve told News18.  He also said that judicial independence is now at stake.

The Supreme Court Collegium has reportedly decided to transfer Justice Varma from the Delhi High Court to his parent Allahabad High Court on the allegations of recovery of huge cash from his residence.

According to Salve, the judiciary itself is on trial.  "A judge-dominated panel won’t do. The system must be transparent, the collegium cannot function this way," he said.

Salve said that if the money was found at any government official's residence, would they have been transferred to another department. "They would have been suspended. A disciplinary inquiry would have followed. Perish the thought if they had been found in the minister's blood. People would have been baying for their blood. If the government would have said that it would hold an internal inquiry into the cabinet minister, the SC would have interfered through a PIL and constituted an SIT. Are the same standards to be applied to your own. I would say higher standards need to be applied to your own. So, it's wrong at that level too. This is not fit for in-house inquiry."

Salve also asked why the judge was being transferred if he was fit to discharge his duties. "If he is fit to discharge judicial functions, let him be in Delhi. If he is unfit to discharge functions, is he fit for Allahabad HC and not Delhi HC. Allahabad is not a dumping ground for judges with doubtful integrity. And if the collegium feels his integrity should not be doubted, then it should leave the judge alone and tell people this is a false narrative," said Salve.