Justice Varma tells Parliamentary panel he was not present when house caught fire, no cash found
Justice Varma said in his response that he was not the first responder and did not play any role in recovering any alleged cash. Also, he said the first responders did not secure the scene of the incident.
New Delhi: Justice Yashwant Varma, in a response to a Parliamentary panel, said that he was absent from his house when the fire took place there. He also claimed that no cash was recovered from his house during the incident.
What did Justice Yashwant Varma say in his response?
Justice Varma said in his response that he was not the first responder and did not play any role in recovering any alleged cash. Also, he said the first responders did not secure the scene of the incident.
Notably, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla admitted a multi-party motion for Justice Varma’s removal on August 12, 2025, and set up a three-member inquiry committee comprising Supreme Court judge Justice Aravind Kumar, Madras High Court Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava, and senior advocate B V Acharya.
The recovery of cash from his home
On March 14, 2025, burnt currency notes were reportedly found at the official residence of Justice Varma. After that, he was repatriated from the Delhi High Court to the Allahabad High Court.
Sanjiv Khanna, the then Chief Justice of India, started an in-house inquiry, forming a three-member committee. It found Justice Varma guilty of misconduct, but he refused to resign, and the CJI forwarded the report along with the judge’s response to the President and the Prime Minister.
Justice Varma moves Supreme Court
Recently, Justice Varma moved the Supreme Court challenging the inquiry committee's constitution. The office of the Lok Sabha Speaker and the secretaries general of both Parliament Houses have received notices over the matter as Justice Varma seeks to quash the Speaker’s action, the admission of the motion, and all consequential notices issued by the inquiry committee.