Lok Sabha Committee Inquiring Justice Yashwant Varma Reconstituted, Bombay HC CJ Inducted
LIVELAW NEWS NETWORK
26 Feb 2026 6:09 AM IST
The Lok Sabha Speaker has reconstituted the inquiry committee constituted to examine corruption allegations against Justice Yashwant Varma. The reconstitution follows the impending retirement of one of the committee members, Madras High Court Chief Justice Maninder Mohan Shrivastava, on March 5.
Bombay High Court Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar has been inducted into the three-member committee in place of Justice Shrivastava. The Chairperson (Justice Aravind Kumar of the Supreme Court) and the remaining member(Senior Adv BV Acharya) of the committee continue unchanged. The change will take effect from March 6.
It was in August last year that the inquiry committee, in terms of Section 3 of the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968, was formed by the Lok Sabha Speaker, after a motion to impeach Justice Varma was moved by 146 Lok Sabha MPs. Although Justice Varma challenged the legality of the committee's constitution in the Supreme Court, his challenge was repelled.
The issue relates to the accidental discovery of a huge pile of currency notes at an outhouse of the official residence of Justice Varma, then a judge of the Delhi High Court, during a fire-fighting operation on March 14, 2025.
After the discovery led to a huge public controversy, the then CJI Sanjiv Khanna constituted an in-house inquiry committee of three judges- Justice Sheel Nagu (then Chief Justice of Punjab & Haryana High Court), Justice GS Sandhawalia (then Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court), and Justice Anu Sivaraman (Judge, Karnataka High Court). Justice Varma was repatriated to the Allahabad High Court, and judicial work was withdrawn from him pending the inquiry.
The committee submitted its report, prima facie finding Justice Varma's culpability, to the then CJI Khanna in May, which the CJI forwarded to the President and the Prime Minister for further action, after Justice Varma refused to heed the CJI's advice to resign.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had dismissed another petition filed by Justice Varma challenging the in-house inquiry as well as the CJI's recommendation to remove him.