Justice Varma’s defence in plea rests on proof of money stash

NEw new delhi: That immortal pop-history run along forms a mainstay in the defence of justness Yashwant Varma, according to people familiar spirit with the matter and excerpts from the 55-year old judge’s submission to the committee set up by the then Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna to look into the allegation that a huge amount of cash was discovered in his house. HT reviewed parts of the judge’s submission.Two months after a mysterious fire broke out in an outhouse at the residence of Varma, then a Delhi High Court judge, the money remains at the heart of the arguments of both sides. While the committee’s report, submitted to the CJI on May 4, has not been made public, parts of it have been reported in the media, citing people familiar with the contents. These claim that on the day following the fire on March 14, there was a clean-up exercise, with the contents from the outhouse being moved by unknown individuals. Justice Varma’s defence, on the basis of the details shared by people familiar with the matter and the excerpts seen by Hindustan Times, would appear to be that there was no money at all.To be sure, justice Varma, now a judge at the Allahabad high court, could become the first judge of a constitutional court to be removed. Earlier this month, Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna initiated the process for justice Varma’s removal by writing to President Droupadi Murmu and PM Narendra Modi, stating that the allegations of recovery of cash at the judge’s residence were serious and warranted initiation of proceedings for his removal under the Constitution. Justice Varma’s defence, articulated in 105 pages, and including a detailed floor plan of his house and outhouse, questions the absence of CCTV footage, and the lack of any forensic analysis of the burnt debris.The only evidence of the money in the public domain is the still photographs and the video clip shared by the Supreme Court on March 22 that show burnt currency notes on the floor of a room. There has never been any confirmation of the amount of money found, just unofficial reports that it ran into several crores. The three-member committee comprising Punjab and Haryana high court Chief Justice Sheel Nagu, Himachal Pradesh high court Chief Justice GS Sandhawalia, and Karnataka high court judge justice Anu Sivaraman concluded in their report that since the cash was found in Varma’s official bungalow, he must be held accountable. The committee’s report, after examining officials including the Delhi Police and Delhi Fire Service chiefs , concludes that the cash remains were probably cleaned out the morning after the fire on the night of March 14.There is a reference to the clean-up in Delhi high court Chief Justice Devendra Upadhyay’s March 21 letter to justice Varma where he says, “The Commissioner of Police also informed me that as per the security guard posted at your residence, some debris and half burnt articles were removed in the morning of 15.3.2025.” Varma’s defence questions all of this.For starters, according to the excerpts seen by HT, he questions the identity of the police officer who sent a WhatsApp message to Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora which was then forwarded to Delhi high court Chief Justice Upadhyay on March 16, two days after the fire. The message in Hindi translates as: “In that room, after the fire broke out, 4–5 burnt sacks were found, which contained remnants of Indian currency.” Varma claims that it is not clear who sent this message and that no one has owned up to it.He also questions the absence of CCTV footage of the room despite a camera that was pointing directly towards it and the passage leading to the staff and CRPF quarters. The inquiry committee obtained the hard drive and sent it to central forensic sciences laboratory (CFSL), Chandigarh. However, they concluded that no evidence could be extracted from the footage. Varma’s argument is that the recording equipment was also in the guard house and not controlled by him. The panel’s conclusion was that the hard drive was only seized on March 25th, more than 10 days after the fire, and could have been tampered with.Varma’s defence also suggests that someone may have hidden the money in his outhouse, or that it could have been “planted” as part of the conspiracy against him. It adds that the outhouse wasn’t locked and that many people had access to it -- though media reports of the committee’s findings say that the committee found that the room was usually locked.In his defence, Varma also claims that his 27-year-old daughter who was present in the house on the night of the fire -- the judge and his wife were travelling -- heard a loud explosion. This, he says, was never probed.The panel also concluded in its reported that was submitted on May 4, that Justice Varma’s “unnatural conduct is indicative of his guilt”. It cites testimonies of witnesses that say that after he came back from Bhopal, he never visited the outhouse where the fire took place. In his defence, Varma says he was more concerned about taking care of his aged mother, who was upset by the fire and had stayed up late, and his daughter. He was under the impression that it was a case of “arson” , he adds. The panel also found it suspicious that Justice Varma “meekly” accepted his transfer to the Allahabad High Court. Varma says in his defence that he wanted to counter this and other charges in a personal audience with then Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna, but that on May 6, he was instead served an ultimatum--step down or face impeachment.