CJI Gavai Won’t Hear Justice Varma’s Plea, Directs To Form Special Bench
Chief Justice BR Gavai on Wednesday said it may not be proper for him to take up Justice Yashwant Varma’s plea.
Chief Justice BR Gavai on Wednesday said it may not be proper for him to take up Justice Yashwant Varma’s plea challenging the in-house panel’s findings in the cash-at-residence case.
The top court added that it will constitute a bench to hear Justice Varma’s plea. The matter was mentioned today before the bench of CJI BR Gavai, Justices K Vinod Chandran and Joymalya Bagchi. Senior advocates, including Kapil Sibal, Mukul Rohatgi, Rakesh Dwivedi, Sidharth Luthra, and Siddharth Aggarwal, appeared for Justice Verma and submitted that they have filed the petition on behalf of the Allahabad High Court Judge.
“Some constitutional issues are there. I request you to constitute a bench as soon as possible," the advocates mentioned. Responding to the request, CJI said that it may not be proper for him to take up that matter."We will just take a call and constitute a bench," he then told the counsel.
In his petition, Justice Varma argued that the in-house probe panel reached its conclusions without granting him a fair chance to present his case. He claimed the panel acted with a pre-set approach, drawing adverse inferences despite lacking concrete evidence and by effectively shifting the burden of proof onto him. He has also contested former Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna’s recommendation to the President and Prime Minister, calling for impeachment proceedings to be initiated against him.
The case stems from the shocking discovery of a large stash of cash found at an outhouse of Justice Yashwant Varma’s official residence—then serving as a judge of the Delhi High Court—during a firefighting operation on March 14.
The incident triggered public outcry, prompting then Chief Justice Khanna to set up an in-house inquiry panel comprising Justice Sheel Nagu (then Chief Justice of the Punjab & Haryana High Court), Justice GS Sandhawalia (then Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court), and Justice Anu Sivaraman (Judge, Karnataka High Court). Following this, Justice Varma was sent back to the Allahabad High Court and was relieved of judicial responsibilities pending the outcome of the inquiry.
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