The Delhi High Court on Monday withdrew judicial work from Justice Yashwant Varma with immediate effect following an inquiry into the alleged discovery of a large amount of cash after a fire at his official residence. The court’s decision will remain in force until further orders.
The development was announced through a notice issued by the high court, with a separate note attached to the day’s causelist on the high court’s website. The note stated that the court master of division bench-III, previously headed by Justice Varma, would assign dates in cases listed before Monday.
“In view of the recent events, the judicial work from Justice Yashwant Varma is withdrawn with immediate effect, till further orders,” the note, signed by the registrar (listing), read.
The decision was taken following directions from Delhi High Court Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya, who had earlier received a request from Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, asking him not to assign any judicial work to Justice Varma, the second senior-most judge of the Delhi High Court.
Justice Varma was heading a division bench handling cases related to sales tax, goods and services tax (GST), company appeals, and other original side appeals. His roster has now been reassigned to a division bench comprising Justices Subramonium Prasad and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar. Justice Prathiba M Singh will now head division bench-III.
The Supreme Court on March 22 uploaded on its website an inquiry report by Chief Justice Upadhyaya, which included photos and videos related to the alleged discovery of cash. Following this, CJI Khanna constituted a three-member committee to investigate the allegations and ordered an in-house inquiry.
Justice Upadhyaya’s report to the CJI detailed official communication indicating that “four to five semi-burnt sacks of Indian currency notes” were discovered at Justice Varma’s residence in Lutyens’ Delhi.
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Justice Varma has denied the allegations, stating that neither he nor any of his family members had ever placed cash in the storeroom of his residence. In his response to the high court chief justice, he termed the allegation of cash discovery a “conspiracy to frame and malign him.”
(With inputs from PTI)
