In-house inquiry procedure enters crucial second stage

With Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna constituting a three-member panel to probe the discovery of "four to five semi-burnt sacks" of Indian currency notes after a fire incident at the residence of Delhi High Court judge Yashwant Varma, the in-house procedure has entered the crucial second-stage whose findings will decide the fate of the judge.

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The fire incident at the storeroom of the official residence of Justice Varma on March 14 in posh Lutyens' Delhi locality purportedly led to the discovery of the cash by firefighters and police personnel.

The CJI constituted the three-member panel after the Delhi High Court Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya in his report dated March 21 and made public on Saturday evening called for a "deeper probe" into the allegations.

The three-member inquiry committee formed by the CJI consists of Justices Sheel Nagu (Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court), G S Sandhawalia (Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court) and Karnataka High Court judge Anu Sivaraman. However, no timeline has been fixed for the inquiry committee to conclude the probe.

In 2014, while dealing with a case of alleged sexual harassment of a subordinate court judge in Madhya Pradesh at the behest of a sitting judge of the high court, the top court laid down the in-house procedure meant to probe the allegations against a judge of the constitutional courts.

It said in the first stage of the in-house procedure, the prima facie veracity of the allegations contained in the complaint is ascertained.