New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday withdrew judicial work from Justice Yashwant Varma, who is embroiled in the controversy surrounding the alleged discovery of a huge pile of burnt cash in the storeroom attached to his bungalow at the national capital after the fire brigade had gone there to douse a blaze on March 14.
“In view of recent events, the judicial work from Hon’ble Mr. Justice Yashwant Varma is withdrawn with immediate effect, till further orders,” said a notice uploaded on the website of the Delhi High Court.
“Court Master of Hon’ble DB-III will give dates in the matter listed before Hon’ble DB-III today,” added the notice issued by Registrar (Listing).
As per the roster, Justice Varma-led division bench (DB-III), which also comprised Justice Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar, dealt with sales tax cases and GST cases, Letters Patent Appeals, regular First Appeals (Original Side), Company Appeals, matters to be heard by Commercial Appellate Division, etc.
On Friday, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna constituted a 3-member committee to conduct an inquiry against Justice Varma and asked the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court not to assign him any judicial work for the time being.
“The Chief Justice of India has constituted a three-member committee consisting of Mr Justice Sheel Nagu, Chief Justice of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana, Mr Justice G.S. Sandhawalia, Chief Justice of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh, and Ms Anu Sivaraman, Judge of the High Court of Karnataka, for conducting an inquiry into the allegations against Mr Justice Yashwant Varma, a sitting Judge of the High Court of Delhi,” said a statement released by the Supreme Court.
A day before, the apex court clarified that the proposal for the transfer of Justice Varma, who is the second senior most judge in the Delhi High Court, to his parent High Court i.e. the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, where he will be the ninth in seniority, is “independent and separate from the In-house enquiry procedure”.
“The proposal was examined by the Collegium comprising of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) and four senior-most Judges of the Supreme Court on 20th March 2025, and thereafter letters were written to the consultee Judges of the Supreme Court, the Chief Justices of the High Courts concerned, and Mr Justice Yashwant Varma. Responses received will be examined and, thereupon, the Collegium will pass a resolution,” it had said in a statement.
Born in January 1969, Justice Varma obtained a law degree from Rewa University and practised mainly on the civil side handling varied nature of matters relating to constitutional, industrial disputes, corporate, taxation, environment, and allied branches of law. He served as Chief Standing Counsel for the State of UP from 2012 till August 2013, when he was designated as ‘senior advocate’ by the Allahabad High Court. Justice Varma was elevated as an Additional Judge in October 2014 and was transferred to the Delhi High Court in October 2021. At the Delhi High Court, Justice Varma is currently the second seniormost judge dealing with writ petitions challenging the constitutional validity of any law, statutory rule, regulation or notification pertaining to municipal tax.
(IANS)
