Judicial Panel Begins Probe Into Case

The Supreme Court-appointed in-house committee on Tuesday commenced its inquiry into the alleged cash discovery row involving Delhi high court judge Justice Yashwant Varma, sources said.

- Press Trust of India

NEW DELHI:

They said the three members -- 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 New Delhi.

The judges were inside the official residence of Justice Varma for around 30-35 minutes and apparently inspected the site, sources said.

The alleged cash discovery took place following a fire at Justice Varma's official residence here at around 11:35 pm on March 14, prompting the fire officials to rush to the spot and douse it. On March 22, Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna constituted a three-member committee to conduct an in-house inquiry into allegations against Justice Varma.

Justice Varma strongly denounced the allegations and said no cash was ever placed in the storeroom either by him or any of my family members.

In his response submitted to Delhi High Court Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya, Justice Varma said the allegations of cash discovery at his residence clearly appeared to be a conspiracy to frame and malign him.

Meanwhile, Rajya Sabha chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on Tuesday called a meeting of the leaders of various parties to decide the course of action the House should take on pleas by some members of Parliament (MPs) seeking discussion on the alleged discovery of cash from the official residence of a Delhi high court judge.

Meeting of the floor leaders of various political parties took place at 4:30 pm on Tuesday, he said after rejecting a rule 267 notice of Haris Beeran of Kerala-based IUML who wanted a discussion on the matter by setting aside the business of the day.

Dhankhar said he had on Monday met Leader of the House J P Nadda and Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge on the "very critical issue that is agitating the minds in branches of governance".