Delhi High Court Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya said the alleged recovery of a large stash of cash from Justice Yashwant Varma's official residence has left everyone "shaken". He was responding to senior advocate Arun Bhardwaj mention of the matter in court.
"Today's incident has pained many of us. Please take some steps on the administrative side so these incidents do not happen in future and the judicial system is maintained," Justice Bhardwaj said.
He added, "We respect the system a lot. Each of the judges are respected a lot. We are shaken my lords and demoralised. Please take some steps. I am not expressing my pain any further and I am sure I am expressing the pain of many of my brothers. Please take some steps to see that such incidents do not happen."
Delhi High Court judge Varma will now reportedly be transferred back to the Allahabad High Court, as per a decision by the Supreme Court Collegium led by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna.
Reports suggest that a few senior Collegium members wanted stricter action against Justice Varma besides his transfer. They are stated to be of the view that the top court Collegium should seek his resignation and if that is refused, an in-house inquiry, as envisaged in top court judgements, could be launched against Justice Varma.
The large sum of cash was recovered from the second senior-most judge of the Delhi High Court after a fire at his residence. He did not hold court on Friday.
Born on January 6, 1969, Justice Varma was appointed as an additional judge of the Allahabad High Court on October 13, 2014. As per the information available on Delhi High Court's website, Justice Varma took oath as a permanent judge of the high court on February 1, 2016, before being appointed as a judge of the Delhi High Court on October 11, 2021. He was enrolled as an advocate on August 8, 1992.
