The judge said no cash was ever kept in the room by him or his family.
Strongly denying that he or his family had kept any cash in the storeroom from which the burnt remains of several wads of notes were allegedly recovered, Delhi High Court Justice Yashwant Varma has said the room is disconnected from his main residence and is accessible to, and used by, several people.
In a lengthy response to Delhi High Court Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyay on the alleged recovery of cash, Justice Varma said a fire broke out in the storeroom situated near the staff quarters of his official residence in Delhi late on the night of March 14, which was Holi.
"This room was generally utilised by all and sundry to store articles such as unused furniture, bottles, crockery, mattresses, used carpets, old speakers, garden implements as well as CPWD (Central Public Works Department) material. This room is unlocked and accessible both from the official front gate as well as the backdoor of the staff quarters. It is disconnected from the main residence and is surely not a room in my house as has been portrayed," the judge wrote.
Justice Varma said he and his wife were in Madhya Pradesh that day and only his daughter and aged mother were home. He said he returned to Delhi with his wife on March 15 on an IndiGo flight from Bhopal.
"When the fire broke out around midnight, the fire service was alerted by my daughter and my private secretary and whose calls would be duly recorded (sic). During the exercise to douse the fire, all staff and the members of my household were asked to move away from the scene of the incident in view of safety concerns. After the fire was doused and when they went back to the scene of the incident, they saw no cash or currency on site," the judge said.
"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," he asserted.
The room, the judge said, is completely dissociated from his and his family's living areas.
Timeline
Justice Varma said he was told about the exact nature of the incident after he returned to Delhi. "I vividly recollect your (Justice Upadhyay's) first phone call to me on that evening when you apprised me of having received information of an incident of arson at my residence. I expressed shock and complete disbelief since till that time I was led to believe that it was merely a fire caused by a short circuit. I recall my apprising you of the nature of the premises and the articles which are usually put away for storage in that room," the judge wrote.
Justice Varma said Justice Upadhya had requested for the PPS (principal private secretary) to be allowed to visit the site and he had agreed.
"The PPS arrived later that night and when I, my PS (private secretary) along with the PPS inspected the gutted room, no currency was either found nor was any cash in any state seen present on site. This also stands corroborated from the report which has been provided to me. Post that inspection and on your instructions, the gutted room remains in that state even today," he emphasised.
'Conspiracy'
Referring to photos and videos of cash at the storeroom - some of which were also uploaded on the Supreme Court website on Saturday - Justice Varma said he met Justice Upadhyay before the court commenced the next day (March 16) and was shown the recordings which were shared by the Commissioner of Police.
"I was totally shocked to see the contents of the video since that depicted something which was not found on site as I had seen it. It was this which prompted me to observe that this clearly appeared to be a conspiracy to frame and malign me. It also lends credence to my firm belief that the entire incident is part of a sequence of events which occurred in the recent past including the unfounded allegations that circulated on social media in December 2024 [which too I had apprised you about during the course of our meeting] and your first reaction of the incident being that of arson," Justice Varma wrote in his reply.
"It was the lack of knowledge or connection with the purported discovery of currency is what prompted my reaction in our first interaction in respect of this episode and when I had alluded to a conspiracy to frame me," he added.
Reiterating that neither he nor his family members had kept money in the storeroom, Justice Varma said their cash withdrawals are documented and "always through regular banking channels, the use of UPI applications and cards". He asserted that no one from his house ever reported seeing any currency in burnt form in the room.
"In fact, this gets further corroborated from there being no cash or currency which we saw when
the site was restored to us after the fire personnel and the police had left the scene quite apart from we being not apprised of any recovery or seizure which was made on the spot," the High Court judge said.
'No One Was Shown Cash'
"That takes me to the video clip which has been shared with me. Assuming without admitting that the video was taken immediately at the time of the incident at the site, none of it appears to have been recovered or seized. The second aspect which I need to underscore is that none of the staff was shown any remnants of cash or currency that may have been present on site," the judge wrote, adding that his staff have said there was no 'removal' of currency.
"The only thing which was cleared was debris and what they considered to be salvageable. That is still present in the house and can be seen kept apart in one part of the residence. What baffles me is the complete absence of any sacks of allegedly burnt currency which were ever recovered or seized. We categorically assert that neither my daughter, PS 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 said.
Reputation, Character
Urging the Delhi High Court Chief Justice too absolve him of the "unfounded and baseless
allegations", Justice Varma said nothing matters more in the life of a judge than reputation and character.
"That 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," he wrote.
This incident has scarred my reputation built over more than a decade as a judge of a High Court, and it has left me with no means to defend myself. 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," he added.
Supreme Court Sets Up Panel
Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna on Saturday formed a three-member committee to look into the allegations against Justice Varma. The committee members are 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.
The Delhi High Court Chief Justice has also been asked not to assign any judicial work to Justice Varma for the time being.
