SC to form bench on Justice Varma plea

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it would constitute a bench to hear Allahabad High Court judge Justice Yashwant Varma’s plea seeking to invalidate a report by an in-house inquiry panel, which found him guilty of misconduct in the cash discovery row. Chief Justice of India BR Gavai recused from the case. CJI was part of forming in-house panel and endorsing the probe report send to Prime Minister and President, recommending impeachment.

Justice Varma has also sought quashing of the May 8 recommendation by then Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna urging Parliament to initiate impeachment against him. The matter was mentioned for urgent listing before a bench comprising Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justices K Vinod Chandran and Joymalya Bagchi. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who mentioned the matter for Justice Varma, said the plea was in respect of recommendation made by the then CJI for removal of Justice Varma. “We have raised some constitutional issues. I request your lordships to list it as early as possible,” he said.

The CJI said, “I will have to constitute a bench”. He said it might not be proper for him to take up the matter as he was also a part of the process. “We will take a call and constitute a bench,” the CJI told Sibal.

In his petition, Justice Varma submitted that the inquiry “reversed the burden of proof”, requiring him to investigate and disprove the charges levelled against him. Alleging that the panel’s findings were based on a preconceived narrative, Justice Varma said the inquiry timelines were driven solely by the urge to conclude proceedings swiftly, even at the expense of “procedural fairness”.

The petition contended that the inquiry panel drew adverse findings without affording him a full and fair hearing.

A report of the inquiry panel probing the incident had said that Justice Varma and his family members had covert or active control over the store room where a huge cache of half-burnt cash was found, proving his misconduct which is serious enough to seek his removal.    The three-judge panel headed by Chief Justice Sheel Nagu of the Punjab and Haryana High Court conducted the inquiry for 10 days, examined 55 witnesses and visited the scene of the accidental fire that started at around 11.35 pm on March 14 at the official residence of Justice Varma, then a sitting judge of the Delhi High Court and now in the Allahabad High Court. Acting on the report, then CJI Khanna wrote to President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi recommending the judge’s impeachment.