A CASH SCANDAL ROCKING THE INDIAN JUDICIARY

Delhi judge Yashwant Verma faces impeachment after huge amount of burnt notes was found in his residence

- BY SWATI CHATURVEDI | Special to Gulf News

India was horrified in March to see pictures in a national daily of piles of burnt, some still smoking, unaccounted cash in the store/outhouse room of a sitting judge of the Delhi High Court — Justice Yashwant Verma. While no one knows the exact amount, it was said to run into millions of rupees.

National outrage followed. Justice Verma was transferred to the Allahabad High Court, where the Bar protested his transfer, saying that the Allahabad High Court was not a garbage receptacle for tainted judges.

The Supreme Court, the appointing and administrative authority for High Court judges, then announced an inquiry under the leadership of Justice Sanjiv Khanna (now retired).

In a rare display of urgency in India's judicial processes, a three-member judicial committee worked overtime to conduct the inquiry into the allegations that “a huge amount of cash was found in the official residence of Justice Verma”.

The committee's verdict is now in and it has found him unanimously guilty.

The Narendra Modi government has taken the matter with the utmost seriousness. Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju went public last Tuesday, saying that the government would bring an impeachment motion against Justice Verma in the Monsoon session of Parliament. The Monsoon session will begin in the third week of July.