AGENCY
NEW DELHI, Mar 24
In a day – March 24, 2025 – after Chief Justice of Delhi High Court Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya withdrew judicial work from Justice Yashwant Verma – embroiled in the controversy of alleged recovery of huge cash from his official residence here on March 14, 2025, following the outbreak of a fire – the Supreme Court collegium has recommended his transfer back to the Allahabad High Court – his parent high court.
A brief statement issued by the Supreme Court on Monday said, “The Supreme Court Collegium in its meetings held on 20th and 24th March 2025 has recommended repatriation of Mr. Justice Yashwant Varma, Judge, High Court of Delhi, to the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad.”
The Allahabad High Court Bar Association (AHCBA) has raised objections to the Supreme Court Collegium’s decision to transfer Justice Varma to the Allahabad High Court. The AHCBA has said that Allahabad High Court could not be treated as a dumping ground for such a judge.
Chief Justice of India Justice Sanjiv Khanna, on March 22, 2025, asked the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, not to assign, for the time being, any judicial work to Justice Yashwant Varma. Reports relating to the recovery of huge cash from the residence of Justice Yashwant Verma said, a fire at the judge’s house on March 14, 2025, had inadvertently led to the recovery of cash by the firefighters.
Cracking the whip, the Chief Justice of India on Saturday (March 22, 2025) constituted a three-member committee to probe into the alleged recovery of huge unaccounted cash from the official residence of Justice Yashwant Verma.
The three-member committee that will probe into the alleged recovery of the cash includes the Chief Justice of the Punjab & Haryana, High Court Justice Sheel Nagu, the Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court Justice G.S. Sandhawalia and a judge of Karnataka High Court, Justice Ms. Anu Sivaraman.
In an attempt to make the entire exercise, including the inquiry transparent following the alleged recovery of cash from the residence of Justice Yashwant Verma, the apex court put in public domain the inquiry report by the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court into the alleged recovery of cash, response of Justice Yashwant Varma to it, and other documents relating to the controversy. The Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya, in his report to the Chief Justice of India, Justice Sanjiv Khanna had said that he is of the prima faice opinion that the entire matter warrants a “deeper probe”.
On the other hand, Justice Yashwant Varma in his reply had said that no cash was ever placed in that storeroom either by him or any of his family members and said he strongly denounced the suggestion that the alleged cash belonged to them.
Justice Yashwant Verma had also said that the room which caught fire and where cash was allegedly found was an outhouse and not the main building where the judge and family resides.
The Supreme Court on Friday had on Friday (March 21, 2025) brushed aside any linkage between the transfer of Justice Varma to Allahabad High Court and the alleged recovery of a huge cash from his official residence. The statement in March 21, 2025, by the Supreme Court had said, “The proposal for transfer of Mr. Justice Yashwant Varma, who is the second senior most Judge in the Delhi High Court and a member of the Collegium, to his parent High Court i.e. the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, where he will be ninth in seniority, is independent and separate from the In-house inquiry procedure.”
