New Delhi: The Supreme Court collegium Monday confirmed the transfer of Delhi High Court’s Justice Yashwant Varma, facing an enquiry over the alleged discovery of huge cash from his official residence and from whom judicial work was withdrawn, to his parent Allahabad High Court.
The transfer recommendation to the Centre was made public in a resolution uploaded on the top court website.
“The Supreme Court Collegium in its meetings held March 20 and 24, 2025 has recommended the repatriation of Justice Yashwant Varma, Judge, High Court of Delhi, to the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad,” said the resolution.
On March 21, the Supreme Court said Delhi High Court Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya had initiated an in-house inquiry against Justice Varma and there was a separate proposal to transfer him.
“There is misinformation and rumours are being spread with regard to the incident at the residence of Justice Yashwant Varma,” the SC statement added.
Upon receiving the information, the apex court said Chief Justice Upadhyaya “commenced the in-house enquiry procedure, collecting evidence and information”.
Justice Upadhyaya was stated to have commenced the enquiry prior to a meeting of the apex court collegium March 20.
Justice Varma’s proposed transfer could come into effect after the Centre accepts the recommendation.
The alleged cash discovery happened following a fire at Varma’s Lutyens Delhi residence at around 11.35pm March 14, prompting the fire officials to rush to the spot and douse it.
The apex court collegium headed by CJI Sanjiv Khanna and the Delhi High Court subsequently issued a series of directives, including the withdrawal of judicial work from Justice Varma Monday.
The CJI constituted an in-house committee to conduct an inquiry and asked Delhi HC Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya not to assign any judicial work to Justice Varma.
In an unprecedented move, the apex court late March 22 uploaded on its website an in-house inquiry report, including photos and videos, into alleged discovery of a huge stash of cash at the residence of Justice Varma.
The report contains photos and videos of the cash allegedly discovered at a storeroom at Justice Varma’s house during a firefighting operation on the night of Holi, March 14 aside from his response.
Justice Varma has “unequivocally” denied the any cash being placed in the storeroom either by him or any of his family members while “strongly denouncing the suggestion that the alleged cash belonged” to them.
He said the allegations of cash discovery from his official residence clearly appeared to be a conspiracy to frame and malign him.
“The very idea or suggestion that this cash was kept or stored by us is totally preposterous,” he said.
The inquiry report submitted by Chief Justice Upadhyaya also contained material with regard to official communication which says “four to five semi-burnt stacks of Indian currency” were found.
“On examining the incident reported, the material available and the response of Justice Yashwant Varma, what I find is that the Commissioner of Police in his report dated March 16, 2025 has reported that as per the guard posted at the residence of Justice Yashwant Varma, the debris and other partially burnt articles were removed from the room where the fire had broken out in the morning of March 15, 2025,” said the report dated March 21 and made public the next day.
The report went on, “The enquiry conducted by me, prima facie, does not reveal possibility of entry or access to the room by any person other than those residing in the bungalow, the servants, the gardeners and CPWD personnel, if any.”
“I am of the prima facie opinion that the entire matter warrants a deeper probe,” Justice Upadhyaya added.
Following the recommendation, the SC constituted a three-member inquiry committee comprising Justice Sheel Nagu, Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Himachal Pradesh Chief Justice G S Sandhawalia and Karnataka High Court’s Justice Anu Sivaraman.
The Supreme Court had said the proposal for transferring Justice Varma was examined by the apex court collegium comprising the CJI and the four senior most judges March 20 and thereafter, letters were shot off to the consultee judges of the top court and the chief justices of the high courts concerned, besides Justice Varma.
Justice Varma was enrolled as an advocate August 8, 1992. He was appointed as an additional judge of the Allahabad High Court October 13, 2014.
He took oath as a permanent judge of the Allahabad High Court February 1, 2016, before being appointed as a judge of the Delhi High Court October 11, 2021.
PTI
