Your Conduct Doesn't Inspire Confidence: SC to Justice Yashwant Varma

'CJI cannot be merely a post office'

- MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court criticised Justice Yashwant Varma on Wednesday, stating that his behaviour was not confidence-inspiring. The court also upheld the Chief Justice of India's right to address judicial misconduct, emphasising that the CJI has responsibilities to the country beyond simply forwarding complaints.

The court questioned why Justice Varma, currently serving at the Allahabad High Court, decided to appeal to the Supreme Court after an internal committee had already determined he was guilty of misconduct related to the cash discovery incident.

The Supreme Court was reviewing Justice Varma's petition to overturn findings from an internal inquiry committee that had ruled against him for misconduct. The committee's report had condemned the judge following the discovery of large amounts of burned money at his official residence while he served on the Delhi High Court.

The plea does not reveal Justice Varma's identity and is titled, "XXX v. The Union of India".

Posing sharp questions to the judge, the top court asked Justice Varma why he appeared before the in-house inquiry committee and did not challenge it then and there.

It told Justice Varma that he should have come earlier to the apex court against the panel's report.

A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and A G Masih said the in-house process was put in place in 1999 and the chief justice of India (CJI) cannot be considered merely a post office.

"The Chief Justice of India is not supposed to be a post office only. He has certain duties to the nation as the leader of the judiciary. If material comes to him regarding misconduct, he is only to inform the president and the prime minister. Nothing more."