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Chief Justice of India (CJI) BR Gavai, on Wednesday, July 23, has recused himself from hearing a petition filed by Justice Yashwant Varma challenging his indictment by the three-member in-house committee in the cash-discovery episode. The CJI said that he could not take up the case because he was part of the committee that decided on his transfer to the Allahabad High Court after the issue came to light.
The bench headed by CJI Gavai, and comprising Justices K Vinod Chandran and Joymalya Bagchi, said that they would constitute another bench to hear the matter.
“I think that it may not be proper for me to pick up that matter because I was part of the conversation. We will just take a call and constitute a bench,” the CJI said.
The writ petition filed by Justice Varma sought to quash the communication forwarded by then CJI Sanjiv Khanna to the President and then Prime Minister to take action against Justice Varma.
According to the petition, the in-house panel acted in a “pre-determined manner” and denied Justice Varma a fair opportunity to defend himself. On Monday, 145 MPs from both the ruling and Opposition parties submitted an impeachment notice against Justice Varma to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.
Justice Varma has been in the eye of a storm since the March 14 discovery of burnt cash in an outhouse of the official residence allotted to him while serving in the Delhi High Court.
Following the cash-discovery row, which sent shockwaves across judicial corridors, Justice Varma was repatriated to the Allahabad High Court, and an in-house probe was set up to probe the allegations.
According to the probe committee, both direct and electronic evidence confirmed that the storeroom was under the control of Justice Varma and his family. By way of strong inferential evidence, the in-house panel said the burnt cash was removed from the storeroom during the early hours of March 15.
In conclusion, the three-member inquiry committee, comprising CJ Sheel Nagu of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, CJ GS Sandhawalia of the Himachal Pradesh HC and Karnataka HC’s Justice Anu Sivaraman, found the allegations serious enough to merit impeachment proceedings against Justice Varma. It opined that Justice Varma’s misconduct was not only proven but also grave enough to warrant his removal under Article 124(4) of the Constitution, which outlines the process for removing a Supreme Court judge.
(With IANS inputs)