NEW DELHI: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Tuesday announced a three-member panel to probe allegations against High Court judge Justice Yashwant Varma in the cash-at-home case.
The members are, Justice Arvind Kumar of Supreme Court, Manindra Mohan Shrivastava, Chief Justice of Madras High Court Madras and B Vasudeva Acharya (eminent jurist. He is a senior advocate of Karnataka HC)
The government had earlier begun the process of the impeachment motion against Allahabad High Court judge Yashwant Varma with over 200 members of Parliament (MPs) across party lines submitted a petition seeking the removal of Justice Varma in the cash-discovery row.
A total of 145 Lok Sabha and 63 Rajya Sabha MPs have submitted notices to the presiding officers of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha for the removal of Varma from whose residence here burnt wads of currency notes were found. The signatories to the notice included LoP) Rahul Gandhi, BJP MPs Ravi Shankar Prasad and Anurag Thakur and NCP-SP’s Supriya Sule among others.
The notice was submitted to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla under Articles 124, 217 and 218 of the Constitution.
The Opposition alleged that former Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar's sudden resignation recently citing health reasons was linked to his accepting the Opposition-backed notice for a motion to remove Justice Yashwant Varma.
The Congress party had earlier said that it would back the impeachment notice against Allahabad High Court judge Justice Yashwant Varma, following the government's decision to move ahead with the motion.
A fire incident at Justice Varma's official residence in Delhi in March, when he was serving at the Delhi High Court, led to the discovery of several burnt sacks of banknotes in the outhouse.
Although Justice Varma claimed ignorance about the cash, the Supreme Court-appointed panel indicted him after speaking to multiple witnesses and recording his statement.
Then Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna is believed to have urged Justice Varma to resign, but the judge refused. The Supreme Court subsequently repatriated him to his parent court, the Allahabad High Court, where he has not been assigned any judicial work.
Justice Khanna later wrote to the President and the Prime Minister recommending Justice Varma’s removal—following the prescribed process for removing members of the higher judiciary from service.