Supreme Court To Hear Justice Yashwant Varma's Plea Against In-House Inquiry Report On July 28

The Supreme Court will hear on Monday (July 28) the writ petition filed by Justice Yashwant Varma challenging the in-house inquiry committee's report which indicted him in the cash-at-residence row.A bench comprising Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Augustine George Masih will hear the matter, which is titled 'XXX v.Union of India and another'. Notably, a motion for impeachment has been moved against Justice Varma in the Parliament, where the Monsoon session is presently underway.Last week, a battery of senior lawyers- Kapil Sibal, Mukul Rohatgi, Rakesh Dwivedi, Sidharth Luthra and Siddharth Aggarwal- had mentioned the petiton before Chief Justice of India BR Gavai for urgent listing. CJI agreed to list the matter before a bench of which he is not a member.Justice Varma also challenged the recommendation made by the former Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna to the President and the Prime Minister to initiate impeachment proceedings against him.Justice Varma argues that the in-house inquiry committee made the findings without giving him a fair opportunity to respond. He alleged that the committee proceeded in a pre-determined fashion and even without finding any concrete evidence, merely drew adverse inferences against him after reversing the burden of proof.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. 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 Justice Varma was repatriated to the Allahabad High Court and judicial work was withdrawn from him pending the inquiry.The committee submitted its report to CJI Khanna in May, which the CJI forwarded to the President and the Prime Minister for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.The 3-judge in-house inquiry committee termed Justice Varma's conduct after the fire incident on March 14 - which led to the discovery of the currency notes - unnatural, leading to certain adverse inferences against him.After examining 55 witnesses, including Justice Varma and his daughter, and electronic evidence in the form of videos and photographs taken by the members of the fire brigade, the committee held that cash was found in his official premises. Finding that the storeroom was within the “covert or active control of Justice Varma and his family members”, the committee held that the burden was upon him to explain the presence of cash. Since the judge could not discharge his burden by offering a plausible explanation, except giving a "flat denial or a bald plea of conspiracy", the committee found sufficient grounds to propose action against him.Case : XXX v. Union of India | Diary No.38664/2025

Supreme Court To Hear Justice Yashwant Varma's Plea Against In-House Inquiry Report On July 28

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