Govt To Bring Impeachment Motion Against Justice Yashwant Varma In Next Parliament Session

New Delhi: The Centre will introduce an impeachment motion against Justice Yashwant Varma in the upcoming Parliament session, sources said on Tuesday. Justice Varma is facing corruption charges after a large amount of unaccounted, burnt cash was discovered at his residence in Delhi.

According to the government sources, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju will talk with all the political parties regarding the impeachment motion against Justice Varma.

Justice Yashwant Varma was a former Delhi High Court, who was transferred after sacks of burnt cash were found at his residence in Delhi earlier in March. The entire incident surfaced after a fire had erupted at Justice Varma's residence. However, at the time when the blaze erupted, Justice Varma and his wife were not present in Delhi as they were in Bhopal. The fire had erupted on March 14.

During the initial phase of probe into the case, Justice Varma was transferred to the Allahabad High Court. However, the Allahabad High Court did not welcome the order saying it wasn't a trash bin to accept a judge who is facing allegations of misconduct.

The judicial fraternity questioned collegium’s decision for not taking a stronger action against the judge, given the seriousness of the allegations.

However, after a row had erupted, the Supreme Court clarified that the transfer of Justice Yashwant Varma was unrelated to the cash recovery discovery. 

Not just the Allahabad High Court but various other bar councils in the country protested the transfer of Justice Varma to Allahabad or to any other bar council.

Earlier today, the Bombay Lawyers Association (BLA) approached the Chief Justice of India (CJI) BR Gavai sought sanction to initiate criminal prosecution against Justice Yashwant Varma.

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju will take all the political parties into confidence and on board for the impeachment motion against the judge following his indictment by a 3-member committee constituted by the then Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna.

Earlier in March, Justice Varma denied the allegations. In a statement, Justice Varma had said, “I state unequivocally that no cash was ever placed in that storeroom either by me or any of my family members and strongly denounce the suggestion that the alleged cash belonged to us. The very idea or suggestion that this cash was kept or stored by us is totally preposterous. The suggestion that one would store cash in an open, freely accessible, and commonly used storeroom near the staff quarters or in an outhouse verges on the incredible and incredulous. It is a room completely disassociated from my living areas, and a boundary wall demarcates my living area from that outhouse. I only wish that the media had conducted some inquiry before I came to be indicted and defamed in the press.”

Even though Justice Varma claimed innocence, a Supreme Court appointed committee indicted him. He was nudged to resign but Justice Varma refused.

It was after this that CJI Sanjiv Khanna wrote to the President and Prime Minister to take appropriate measure on the matter.