Amidst the row over the alleged recovery of a huge amount of cash from the residence of Delhi High Court judge Justice Yashwant Varma, a three-member committee set up by the Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna on Tuesday started its inquiry into the matter on Tuesday, sources said.
The in-house committee comprising Justice Sheel Nagu, Chief Justice of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana, Justice G S Sandhawalia, Chief Justice of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh, and Anu Sivaraman, Judge of the High Court of Karnataka, reached Justice Varma's official residence at 30, Tughlak Crescent in the national capital at 1 pm.
The three judges were inside the official residence of Justice Varma for around 45 minutes and inspected the site thoroughly. The members examined the room where the unaccounted stash of cash was allegedly discovered.
Justice Varma has vehemently denied all the allegations levelled against him. He has said that the room which caught fire and where cash was allegedly found was an outhouse and not the main building where he and his family reside.
"I state unequivocally that no cash was ever placed in that storeroom either by me or any of my family members and strongly denounce the suggestion that the alleged cash belonged to us. The very idea or suggestion that this cash was kept or stored by us is totally preposterous. The suggestion that one would store cash in an open, freely accessible and commonly used storeroom near the staff quarters or in an outhouse verges on the incredible and incredulous. It is a room which is completely disassociated from my living areas and a boundary wall demarcates my living area from that outhouse. I only wish that the media had conducted some enquiry before I came to be indicted and defamed in the press," Justice Varma, said, in his reply, a copy of which was accessed by TNIE.
Justice Varma was also asked not to dispose of his mobile phone.
On Monday, the Supreme Court Collegium recommended the repatriation of Justice Varma to the Allahabad High Court.
The CJI had constituted the committee after receiving a report submitted by Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya, Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court of Delhi.
The Supreme Court had said that on receiving information about the alleged cash recovery, Justice Upadhyaya initiated the in-house enquiry procedure against him.
As per reports, a fire at the judge's house on March 14 had inadvertently led to the recovery of alleged cash by the firefighter. It said the cash was found initially by fire tenders when the fire broke out in the judge’s residence on March 14. The judge was not present at his house when the fire took place.
Justice Varma, in his reply to the probe panel, said that no currency was recovered from the premises that he and his family actually occupy and use as a family. "That part of the premises is as indicated removed from the living quarters. It is in the aforesaid background that I urge you to absolve me of these unfounded and baseless allegations," Justice Varma said.
He, in his emotional reply, said that in the life of a judge, nothing matters more than reputation and character, which has been severely tarnished and irreparably damaged. "The baseless allegations that have been levelled against me have proceeded on mere innuendos and an unproven assumption that the cash allegedly seen and found belonged to me," Justice Varma replied.
Terming that the incident has scarred his reputation built over more than a decade as a judge of a High Court, Justice Varma said he has been left with no means to defend himself.
"I would also beseech you to bear in consideration that in all my years as a judge of a High Court, no such allegation had ever been made in the past nor any doubt cast on my integrity. In fact, I would be grateful if an enquiry is made with respect to my functioning as a judge and what is the perception of the legal fraternity with regard to my integrity and honesty in the discharge of my judicial functioning," Justice Varma said.
Claiming his innocence on certain questions put to him, Justice Varma said he was never aware of any money or cash lying in the outhouse storeroom. "Neither I nor any of my family members had any knowledge of cash nor does it have any bearing or relation with me or my family. No such cash or currency was shown to my family members or staff who were present on that night," he said.
He added that what baffles him was the complete absence of any sacks of allegedly burnt currency which were ever recovered or seized. "We categorically assert that neither my daughter, private secretary nor household staff were shown these so-called sacks of burnt currency. I stand by my consistent position that when they accessed the storeroom, there was no currency, burnt or otherwise, which could be seen," he stated.
