NEW DELHI: Congress member Hibi Eden on Tuesday demanded a discussion in the Lok Sabha on the alleged discovery of large sums of unaccounted cash at the residence of a sitting Delhi High Court judge, terming the incident as "extremely disheartening".
Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Eden called for discussion in the House to find robust and cogent solution to ensure greater judicial accountability and transparency in the country.
"The entire country is shocked by the alleged discovery of large sums of unaccounted cash at the residence of a sitting Delhi High Court judge. The Supreme Court has constituted an in-house probe to look into the incident," the Lok Sabha member from Ernakulam said.
The Congress member asserted that judiciary was the most important pillar of a democracy and it was very important that it was free from corruption.
"The incident is extremely disheartening and clearly tarnished the faith of common people of the country in the judicial system," Eden said.
"Accordingly, it is imperative that the House discuss the issue in detail and find robust and cogent solution to ensure greater judicial accountability and transparency in our country and ensure that such incident do not happen in the future," the Congress member said.
Several Congress members associated themselves with the issue raised by Eden.
A fire at the storeroom of the official residence of Justice Yashwant Varma on March 14 in posh Lutyens' Delhi locality purportedly led to the discovery of the cash by firefighters and police personnel.
Justice Varma has "unequivocally" denied any cash being placed in the storeroom either by him or any of his family members while "strongly denouncing the suggestion that the alleged cash belonged" to them.
He said the allegations of cash discovery from his official residence clearly appeared to be a conspiracy to frame and malign him.