SC rejects HC judge’s plea against inquiry

The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed justice Yashwant Varma’s petition against the legality of the in-house inquiry that affirmed "strong inferential evidence" of his involvement in the discovery of sacks of charred currency at his official residence in Delhi earlier this year, upholding both the procedure and the authority of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) in recommending his removal to the President and Prime Minister.

- Utkarsh Anand

The bench, comprising justices Dipankar Datta and AG Masih, refused to entertain the petition on multiple grounds, criticising the conduct of the sitting Allahabad high court judge under scrutiny. “The conduct of the petitioner does not inspire much confidence for us to entertain the writ petition,” said the court, adding that it could have dismissed the plea on this basis alone, but chose instead to address the legal questions in detail.

The court expressed disapproval of justice Varma’s conduct, noting that he willingly participated in the inquiry without protest, raised no constitutional objections at the outset, and only challenged the procedure after an adverse report was submitted.

“Once the petitioner submitted to the jurisdiction, is it not to be presumed that he did so expecting a favourable outcome and the writ petition came to be filed only when the outcome was not palatable to him?” the bench asked.

By a separate order, the bench also dismissed a related plea filed by advocate Mathews Nedumpara seeking registration of a first information report into the matter, saying he had placed incorrect facts before the court and that his petition was an "abuse of the process of law".

The court noted that although Nedumpara's petition stated categorically that he had moved a representation before the government and the Delhi police to lodge an FIR, the statement was found to be incorrect.