Supreme Court reserves judgment in Justice Yashwant Varma case

Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its judgment in the petition filed by Allahabad High Court Justice Yashwant Varma challenging the recommendation made by former Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna to impeach him over the recovery of a large sum of unaccounted cash at his official residence in Delhi.

The former Delhi High Court judge is facing an impeachment motion following a probe into allegations that large sums of cash were recovered from his official residence in New Delhi.

During the hearing today, a bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and AG Masih observed that Justice Varma's conduct did not inspire confidence since he chose to move the Court belatedly after an in-house committee constituted by the CJI arrived at adverse findings against him.

Hearing the arguments, the Bench questioned senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who appeared for Justice Varma, on why he had participated in the inquiry proceedings if he believed the process to be unconstitutional and tainted. The judges also emphasised that the in-house mechanism constitutes the law of the land, having been established through a series of Supreme Court judgments.

Sibal argued that the “leak” of videotapes allegedly showing the recovery of cash from Justice Varma’s residence violated the confidentiality of the in-house process. He contended that the committee’s finding of ‘guilt’ carries considerable weight, especially because it originates from the Chief Justice of India.