NEW DELHI: With the three-member judicial panel starting its probe into alleged recovery of unaccounted cash at Justice Yashwant Varma‘s official residence, Supreme Court collegium led by CJI Sanjiv Khanna on Monday officially recommended to the Union govt he be repatriated to Allahabad HC to keep him away from Delhi and guard against the possibility of him influencing witnesses.
Justice Varma would be sitting idle in Allahabad HC as the collegium has decided not to assign him judicial work until an “all-clear” from the inquiry committee.
SC sources told TOI that though the March 22 directive not to assign Justice Varma judicial work was to Delhi HC CJ D K Upadhyay, it would hold good also for the Allahabad HC CJ who would bar him from holding court. This is meant to assuage the feelings of Allahabad HC Bar Association against his repatriation.
The collegium stuck to its decision to repatriate Justice Varma to Allahabad HC, despite criticism of the move, to insulate the inquiry from any attempt by the judge to interfere in the work of the three-judge panel, comprising Punjab and Haryana CJ Sheel Nagu, Himachal Pradesh CJ G S Sandhawalia and Karnataka HC’s Justice Anu Sivaraman. The inquiry panel will conduct its proceedings in Delhi.
The collegium, comprising CJI Sanjiv Khanna and Justices B R Gavai, Surya Kant, A S Oka and Vikram Nath, had on March 20 arrived at a consensus to repatriate Justice Varma after the alleged discovery of cash in a storeroom on the premises of the judge’s Tughlaq Crescent bungalow in Lutyens Delhi.
However, it took the formal decision after sounding out consultee judges, including SC judges who had officiated as Delhi HC CJs, SC judges who hailed from Allahabad HC and present CJs of the two HCs. On March 21, Delhi HC CJ had agreed with the proposal for Justice Varma’s transfer to Allahabad HC.
After receiving inputs from consultee judges, the collegium took a formal decision. The resolution said, “The collegium in its meetings held on March 20 and 24 has recommended repatriation of Justice Varma, Judge, Delhi HC, to Allahabad HC.”