New Delhi: When Allahabad High Court Judge Shekhar Kumar Yadav came under scrutiny for his communal and divisive remarks and hate speech, the Supreme Court collegium (SCC), headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna, came up short in disciplining him.
Hype and strong words, most of them passed on off-the-record to a section of the media, notwithstanding, the facts remains that Justice Yadav has so far not been suitably penalised for violating his oath of office.
About four months later, the Supreme Court collegium is faced with another serious issue, one that threatens to deliver a body blow, if not destroy, to whatever remains of the public faith in the highest judiciary, especially its collegium.
In the case of Delhi high court Justice Yashwant Varma, the collegium seems to have run into a wall that won’t be easy the breach, the alleged evidence against him notwithstanding.
There are too many questions, too many claims and counter-claims, too many truths, half-truths, outright falsehoods and attempts at sowing confusion and creating obfuscation.
While the CJI has already constituted a three-judge in-house committee to probe the allegations against Justice Varma, citizens expect swift action.
It can’t be tareekh pe tareekh like the character played by Sunny Deol, immortalised in the Hindi film Damini, emphasising the tendency of courts to delay matters. This case needs to be decided with unusual alacrity.
More importantly, now that the politicians have also entered the arena, it is incumbent upon the SC collegium to ensure that in the name of dealing with the Justice Varma case, our political class doesn’t try to control the judiciary any more than it already is.
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If he wishes to really seize it, this incident has given an opportunity to the CJI and other members of the Supreme Court collegium to finally, lay down a transparent and independent, in-house system to deal with infractions by superior judges.
As for Justice Varma, whether he is found guilty or not, whether he remains in service or not, with the accidental discovery of huge amount of cash from his official residence – much of it burnt – and the judge’s assertion that the cash is not his and that the place where fire broke out was not part of his actual residence notwithstanding, life won’t ever be the same again.
It is safe to assume that, despite the long years left before he retires – he retires in 2031 – his shot at judgeship of the Supreme Court, even if he somehow manages to escape the current crisis, is extremely bleak.
Already, so-called mediapersons like Arnab Goswami etc, are busy treating him the same way they dealt with someone much less powerful than the judge – actress Rhea Chakraborty. Who can forget the circus that Arnab and others like him on different channels orchestrated in the aftermath of the death-by-suicide of actor Sushant Singh Rajput. Now, even the CBI has concluded there was no foul play in his death and Chakraborty has been finally been exonerated by the bloodhounds in the media.
Don’t forget what happened to Justice Soumitra Sen of the Calcutta High Court. He resigned before he could be impeached by the Parliament. His crime: misappropriation of large sums of money, which he had received in his capacity as Receiver appointed by the High Court of Calcutta; and misrepresentation of facts with regard to the misappropriation of money before the High Court of Calcutta. Both things happened before he was elevated to the Bench.
This is not the case when it comes to Justice Varma.
A second-generation judge – his father was also a judge of the Allahabad High Court – Justice Varma was, till Thursday when news of the fire and recovery of huge amounts of cash and move to transfer him back to his parent high court, considered a no-nonsense judge.
Lawyers, who have appeared before him, suggest that he was not averse to asking uncomfortable questions of investigating agencies like ED, Income Tax, etc. That, possibly, is one reason why, despite the damming video made public by the Supreme Court late last night, many, including those in the legal system, are still eager to give Justice Varma the benefit of the doubt.
“He is being fixed,” is the common assertion by his supporters. When you ask the most obvious question: By whom, there’s no proper response.
By the government? By his fellow judges? By some probe agency? By some lawyers or litigants? There’s still no answer.
It is possible the in-house inquiry panel concludes the money was not his. In that case, the gravity of the matter would increase manifold, requiring a probe to unearth not just the actual owner but the persons involved in ‘framing’ the judge.
What if the in-house inquiry panel finds that the judge was actually involved and that the money was his? How will it be found which cases were fixed for a consideration? Also, if somehow it is found that some cases were fixed, what then? Will such cases be reopened? And, what about putting in place a system to ensure another Justice Varma-like case doesn’t re-occur?
Though the fact remains that before they formally met to initiate action in his case, the top five judges of the Supreme Court, who comprise the Collegium, waited almost a week for the preliminary report from the Delhi High Court chief justice, the manner in which it went about doing so leaves a lot to be desired.
It was only after careful consideration of the facts that a decision was taken that the matter deserved a strong response. That the initial response left a lot to be desired is another story.
The High Court chief justice’s report, sent to the CJI and which includes reports by the Delhi Police commissioner and video evidence from the spot, prima facie reveals an attempt to tamper with evidence, apprehension of which was raised by the Delhi Commissioner of Police in his interaction with the HC chief justice. “The Commissioner of Police also informed me that as per the Security Guard posted at your residence, some debris and half burnt articles were removed in the morning of 15.3.2025,” chief justice DK Upadhyaya told Justice Varma.
“I am of the prima facie opinion that the entire matter warrants a deeper probe,” he wrote to CJI Sanjiv Khanna.
On March 21, the CJI asked chief justice Upadhyaya to speak to Justice Varma and ask him, among other things, the following three questions: a) How does he account for the presence of money/cash in the room located in his premises?; (b) Explain the source of money/cash which was found in the said room; and (c) Who is the person who had removed the burnt money/cash from the room in the morning of March 15, 2025?
While Justice Varma has denied that the cash belonged to him, the fact remains that the video clearly indicates the presence of a huge amount of cash in the room. Now, the big question is who did the cash belong to? Meanwhile, social media continues to remain a buzz with the alleged links of the judge with some unnamed lawyers/fixers and touts.
But, from his response, it is clear that even the judge is aware of the harm the incident – stage-managed or not – has caused him and the institution.
“In the life of a judge, nothing matters more than reputation and character. That has been severely tarnished and irreparably damaged. The baseless allegations that have been levelled against me have proceeded on mere innuendos and an unproven assumption that the cash allegedly seen and found belonged to me. This incident has scarred my reputation built over more than a decade as a Judge of a High Court, and it has left me with no means to defend myself,” he said.
The onus is now on the CJI and other senior judges to either restore his reputation or punish him in such a way that it sends a message to other errant judges too.
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