New Delhi: Justice Yashwant Varma, who is facing a removal motion in the Lok Sabha, has been granted six weeks by an inquiry committee to respond to the charges against him. The charges stem from the discovery of burnt and unaccounted currency notes at his official residence.
The three-member inquiry committee, led by Supreme Court Judge Aravind Kumar, instructed Justice Varma to submit a detailed response to the memo of charges. The committee has stated that no further extensions will be granted.
The proceedings are scheduled to resume in the last week of January. The inquiry panel has provided Justice Varma with the memo of charges, including evidence such as videos of the burning cash recorded by the Delhi Police and Delhi Fire Service personnel on March 14-15. These videos were taken while they were extinguishing a fire in a room inside the judge's Lutyens Zone bungalow. The evidence also includes statements from witnesses recorded during an internal inquiry conducted by another three-member panel, which was set up by former Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna.
The removal motion against Justice Varma was triggered after wads of burnt and unaccounted currency notes were discovered at his official residence. The inquiry committee, constituted under the Judges (Inquiry) Act on August 12 by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, was formed following a removal motion signed by 146 Members of Parliament (MPs). Besides Justice Kumar, the committee includes Madras High Court Chief Justice M M Srivastava and senior advocate B V Acharya.
During the proceedings before the Lok Sabha Speaker-constituted inquiry panel, Justice Varma will have the opportunity to challenge the accusations, present witnesses to support his defense, and cross-examine witnesses who support the charges against him.
Earlier, a Supreme Court-appointed panel, comprising Chief Justice Sheel Nagu of Punjab and Haryana High Court, Chief Justice G S Sandhawalia of Himachal Pradesh High Court, and Justice Anu Sivaraman of Karnataka High Court, had submitted a report to the CJI. The CJI then forwarded the panel's report to Justice Varma, seeking his response to adhere to the principles of natural justice. Following this, the CJI shared the report and Justice Varma's response with the President and Prime Minister.
The earlier 64-page inquiry report cited “strong inferential evidence” to conclude that Justice Varma had “covert or active control” over the charred cash. The panel's investigation involved analyzing evidence and recording statements from over 50 individuals, including Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora and the chief of the Delhi Fire Service, who were among the first responders to the fire incident at Justice Varma's residence on March 14. At the time of the incident, Justice Varma was a judge of the Delhi High Court.
The current inquiry committee will further investigate the charges against Justice Varma, and its report will be critical in determining the future course of action. If the panel finds Justice Varma guilty, the report will be presented in the Lok Sabha, where a date will be set for an impeachment debate, in which Varma will be allowed to participate.
