Burnt cash case: Why SC panel recommended HC judge's impeachment
When Parliament convenes for its monsoon session on July 21, one issue on which there ought to be wide consensus is the impeachment of former Delhi High Court judge Yashwant Varma. Sacks of partially burnt Rs500 currency notes found in the storeroom of his official residence, 30, Tughlaq Crescent, New Delhi during an accidental fire - captured on camera on the intervening night of March 14-15 - threw up questions of judicial integrity. One of the videos has an audio referring to the burning currency as 'Mahatma Gandhi me aag lag rahi hai' (is burning).
That the storeroom was cleaned up and the notes went missing the next morning, but some burnt fragments of the bank notes were later found on the Tughlaq Crescent lane by lay people added to the mystery. Justice Varma, his family and personal staff flatly denied there was any currency note in the room. But by then the photos and videos had reached the then Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna. The CJI took the extraordinary decision of putting the visuals and Justice Varma's denial in public domain. However, when an in-house probe panel's report indicted the judge, he recommended his impeachment but refrained from placing the report in public domain.
The media got hold of the 64-page report which possibly built a watertight case against Justice Varma. Curiously, no first information report (FIR) has been filed against the crime yet. Also, no committee has been constituted to investigate the allegations against Justice Varma under the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968, which is mandatory.
At a recent meeting of a parliamentary committee on law and justice, several MPs asked why no FIR has been lodged over the matter. While the government is trying to build parliamentary consensus for impeachment, the Opposition is yet to take a final call. There are divergent views on whether another probe panel under the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968 needs to be constituted. While one section considers the in-house panel's report as just a fact-finding exercise, others see it differently. The bigger question is the source of the ill-gotten wealth, which the panel did not answer. The matter will not get quietus unless the source of the funds is outed.
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New Indian Express
25 minutes ago
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Burnt cash case: Why SC panel recommended Justice Varma's impeachment
When Parliament convenes for its monsoon session on July 21, one issue on which there ought to be wide consensus is the impeachment of former Delhi High Court judge Yashwant Varma. Sacks of partially burnt Rs500 currency notes found in the storeroom of his official residence, 30, Tughlaq Crescent, New Delhi during an accidental fire -- captured on camera on the intervening night of March 14-15 -- threw up questions of judicial integrity. One of the videos has an audio referring to the burning currency as 'Mahatma Gandhi me aag lag rahi hai.' That the storeroom was cleaned up and the notes went missing the next morning, but some burnt fragments of the bank notes were later found on the Tughlaq Crescent lane by lay people added to the mystery. Justice Varma, his family and personal staff flatly denied there was any currency note in the room. But by then the photos and videos had reached the then Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna. The CJI took the extraordinary decision of putting the visuals and Justice Varma's denial in public domain. However, when an in-house probe panel's report indicted the judge, he recommended his impeachment but refrained from placing the report in public domain. The media got hold of the 64-page report which possibly built a watertight case against Justice Varma. Curiously, no first information report (FIR) has been filed against the crime yet. Also, no committee has been constituted to investigate the allegations against Justice Varma under the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968, which is mandatory. At a recent meeting of a parliamentary committee on law and justice, several MPs asked why no FIR has been lodged over the matter. While the government is trying to build parliamentary consensus for impeachment, the Opposition is yet to take a final call. There are divergent views on whether another probe panel under the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968 needs to be constituted. While one section considers the in-house panel's report as just a fact-finding exercise, others see it differently. The bigger question is the source of the ill-gotten wealth, which the panel did not answer. The matter will not get quietus unless the source of the funds is outed.
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