Justice Yashwant Varma has been excluded from the recently constituted administrative committees of the Delhi high court. This development comes as Justice Varma battles the allegation that a huge pile of cash was discovered at his official residence in New Delhi following a fire on March 14.
According to a March 27 circular published on the high court's website, the committees were reconstituted immediately from March 26.
The 66 reconstituted committees include Administrative and General Supervision, Grievance Redressal Committee for Advocates, Finance and Budgeting for the sanction of contingent expenditure and writing off losses exceeding ₹5 lakh, aside from Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence. Justice Varma, the second senior-most judge at the Delhi high court, did not find his name on any of the committees, PTI reported.
He was previously a part of several committees. Following a directive from the Supreme Court, the work from Justice Varma has been withdrawn following the cash discovery row.
All the other high court judges, including Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya, comprise the various committees, according to the PTI report.
The cash-in-house row involving Justice Yashwant Varma
A spate of key events has followed the discovery of the burnt cash at the official residence of Justice Yashwant Varma in New Delhi earlier this month.
{{/usCountry}}A spate of key events has followed the discovery of the burnt cash at the official residence of Justice Yashwant Varma in New Delhi earlier this month.
{{/usCountry}}The alleged cash discovery happened following a fire at Justice Varma's Lutyens Delhi residence at around 11.35 pm on March 14, prompting the fire officers to rush to the spot.
He was recently recommended for a transfer to his parent Allahabad high court, a decision which faced opposition from the court’s bar body.
On March 22, the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna, constituted a three-member committee to conduct an in-house inquiry into allegations and decided to upload on the SC website the inquiry report of Chief Justice Upadhyaya, which included photos and videos of the alleged discovery of a huge stash of cash.
Justice Varma denounced any insinuation and said no cash was ever placed in the storeroom either by him or any of his family members.