Supreme Court dismisses PIL seeking FIR in cash discovery case at Delhi HC judge’s residence: ‘Premature’

A three-member in-house committee, appointed by the Supreme Court, initiated its inquiry into the matter on March 25

On Friday, the Supreme Court dismissed a PIL as "premature," which called for Delhi Police to register an FIR over the alleged discovery of burnt bundles of cash from the official residence of Delhi High Court judge Yashwant Varma.

A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan said an in-house inquiry was in progress and there would be several options open to the chief justice of India after the probe's conclusion, PTI reported.

The bench, therefore, refused to examine the plea of advocate Mathews J Nedumpara and three others.

"We have seen the prayers. After the in-house inquiry is over, several options are open. If the report indicates something is wrong, the chief justice (of India) can direct the register of the FIR or refer the matter to the Parliament after examining the report," the court said, as per PTI.

"Today it is not the day to consider this petition. After the in-house report, all options are open. Why should we go into this question? The petition is premature because internal inquiry is going on," the bench stated.

Nedumpara, however, stated that the probe should be carried out by the police and was not the job of the court. The lawyer said there were a lot of questions going on in the mind of a common man including, "Why no FIR was registered on the day when the cash was discovered on March 14? Why no seizure was prepared? Why the scandal was kept a secret for one week? Why the criminal law was not set into motion? Why did the collegium not tell the public?"

The alleged discovery of cash happened after a fire at Justice Varma's Lutyens Delhi residence around 11:35 pm on March 14, which prompted a swift response from fire officers.

A three-member in-house committee, appointed by the Supreme Court, initiated its inquiry into the matter on March 25.

The apex court collegium also recommended the repatriation of Justice Varma to his parent Allahabad High Court. The Delhi High Court had withdrawn work from the judge following a directive from the CJI.

Varma, meanwhile, has denied the charges.