When the gavel falls

The curious case of Justice Yashwant Varma could further amplify the calls for judicial reform

- KANU SARDA

It all started with a telephone call received by the Delhi Fire Service on March 14 around 11:30pm that a fire had been spotted in a storehouse near the official residence of Justice Yashwant Varma of the Delhi High Court. Firefighters, upon extinguishing the blaze, discovered sacks of partially burned cash. As Justice Varma was out of town, his private secretary alerted the police. The matter soon snowballed into a major controversy as Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora informed the chief justice of the Delhi High Court about the discovery of the burnt notes. Following protocol, the chief justice alerted Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and submitted an inspection report.

Justice Varma, upon returning to Delhi the next day, said he had nothing to do with the money. He said the room was used to store discarded household items and was accessible to staff and other workers. On March 20, a preliminary report was submitted to the CJI, prompting the formation of a three-member inquiry committee. Subsequently, the Supreme Court collegium recommended Justice Varma's transfer to the Allahabad High Court.

The incident has opened a Pandora's box—there are reverberations in Parliament, with lawmakers questioning the process of judicial appointments, legal experts raising concerns about the effectiveness of checks and balances within the judicial system, and the common man wondering wheth-er judiciary can still be trusted.

This is not the first time the judiciary has come under scrutiny. Similar cases have been reported in the past when judges faced serious allegations. A notable case involved Justice Soumitra Sen of the Calcutta High Court, who became the first Indian judge to be impeached by the Rajya Sabha in 2011 for misappro-priation of funds. Sen was accused of diverting ₹33 lakh while serving as a court-appointed receiver in a legal dispute, retaining the funds for personal use even after his elevation to the judiciary.