Speaker Om Birla Re-Constitutes Panel To Probe Judge In Cash Row

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has re-constituted a three-member committee to investigate the corruption allegations against Justice Yashwant Varma, the judge of the Allahabad High Court, at whose home piles of burnt cash was found. 

The committee includes Supreme Court Judge Justice Aravind Kumar, Bombay High Court Chief Justice Shri Chandrashekhar, and Karnataka High Court senior advocate BV Acharya.

The notice from the Lok Sabha Secretariat mentioned that the committee was being reconstituted "for the purpose of making an investigation into the grounds on which the removal of Justice Yashwant Varma of the Allahabad High Court is prayed for".

The Speaker's move came after the Supreme Court dismissed Varma's appeal challenging the the decision to admit an impeachment motion against him and the validity of a panel set up to probe the corruption allegations.

Justice Varma was repatriated from the Delhi High Court to the Allahabad High Court after burnt wads of currency notes were found at his official residence in New Delhi on March 14 last year. 

In August, Om Birla had formed a three-member panel to investigate Justice Yashwant Varma. The committee comprises Supreme Court Justice Aravind Kumar, Madras High Court Chief Justice MM Shrivastava, and senior advocate BV Acharya.

He had also accepted an impeachment motion against Justice Varma, endorsed by 146 members of Parliament. 

In his petition to the top court, Justice Varma had argued that the constitution of the committee under Section 3(2) of the 1968 Act violated both his right to be treated and protected equally by the law. 

He also asserted that though notices of motion for removal were given in both Houses of Parliament on the same day, the Speaker had formed the committee unilaterally, in a violation of rules.

But a bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma said a legal provision cannot be used as a weapon to scuttle parliamentary proceedings.

Justice Varma's argument, the judges said, lacked any legal foundation and would entail consequences of a most serious nature.
During Holi last year, firefighters called to Justice Varma's Delhi bungalow had found piles of money that had been burnt. It had shocked the country and raised questions about corruption in the highest levels of judiciary.

Denying any knowledge about the cash, Justice Varma had called the allegations "preposterous".

Later, the top court had set up an in-house panel that recommended his impeachment. The panel's report was forwarded to President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi - by then Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna - with the same recommendation.