Delhi High Court withdraws judicial duties of Justice Varma

India Today

The Delhi High Court has officially withdrawn all judicial duties of Justice Yashwant Varma following the cash haul controversy at his residence.

Transcript

00:00And it's a big development that we're reporting on at this point in time with Justice Verma

00:10formally getting derosted by the High Court.

00:13After India Today reported the judge on duty list, Justice Verma's judicial work has been

00:18withdrawn.

00:19High Court acts after CGI's no judicial work order has now been formally derosted.

00:26I'm going straight across to Nalini for more on that.

00:28There's clearly a big, big fallout of the cash haul controversy, Nalini.

00:33He's been formally derosted.

00:34What next?

00:35Yes, Neha.

00:36In fact, when his name was mentioned in the cause list for the matters to be listed for

00:40hearing today, we were given to understand that the cause list was made according to

00:44the roster that was decided on the 17th of March.

00:47And there was no update on the roster yet.

00:49But now the Delhi High Court has officially put out that all the judicial work has been

00:54withdrawn from Justice Yashwant Verma under the current circumstances.

00:58This is, of course, coming in after the order that had come in from the Chief Justice of

01:03India, Sanjeev Khanna, asking for the timing till the time the inquiry has still not formulated

01:08its report for all judicial work to be taken away from him.

01:12So he's not going to be hearing any matters today.

01:15He was supposed to sit in a division bench, which is a bench of two judges in the Delhi

01:18High Court today to hear matters that were even matters listed before his court.

01:22But none of those proceedings will happen now.

01:25And Justice Yashwant Verma will not be taking up any matters.

01:28Talking about the inquiry that has been set up by the Chief Justice of India, it is essentially

01:32going to be a fact-finding inquiry, basically to determine what is the chain of events and

01:37what really happened on the night of March 14th when the fire had happened in Justice

01:43Verma's residence and this cash was allegedly recovered.

01:46It remains to be seen what the inquiry panel comes up with.

01:49They're not going to be investigating anything beyond just the hard facts of exactly what

01:54the chain of events was.

01:56And for that, they're going to be asking people regarding the contradictory statements that

02:00have been made by the authorities.

02:02They're also going to be authenticating the video that has been put out by the first responders

02:07who were on this scene of the incident.

02:10And they're also going to look into as to what call records have been there regarding

02:16Justice Yashwant Verma, who received a call from him, who he called the night of March

02:2014th when all of this happened.

02:22So all of those facts in a report are then going to be presented before the Chief Justice

02:25of India.

02:26And it remains to be seen what happens once the Chief Justice of India receives that report.

02:31The reason why this is such big news, Sneha, is because remember, in the history of independent

02:35India, there has been not a single judge who has been officially impeached.

02:40There have been several proposals that have come out even into the media, even before

02:44the parliament.

02:45But the impeachment of a judge has not gone through.

02:47So the question on everybody's mind, especially from the legal fraternity today is, will Justice

02:51Yashwant Verma of the Premier High Court of Delhi be the first judge in the history of

02:55India to actually be impeached?

02:57And I'm going to thank you for the moment, Nalini, getting us up to speed with those

03:00details at this point in time.

03:02Now, the judge in question has been formally derostered, is what Nalini is telling us.

03:15All right, telling you more about the cash seizure at the High Court judges' residence.

03:20What is the three-member panel that has been set up?

03:23Will be probing.

03:24What are they going to do, essentially?

03:26They will be, in fact, talking to the first responders.

03:29Also, the events on the night of the recovery, something that they would be looking at.

03:35Verify location where the cash was burned.

03:39Authenticity of the video recorded, call upon staff, security deployed at the judges' residence

03:45is something that's going to be looked at very closely.

03:48On the contradictory statements as well, between the Delhi commissioner, police commissioner's

03:53remarks as well, will be studied.

03:55And also be looking at the access to the storeroom where the cash was stored, because remember

03:59the judge said everyone has access to it.

04:02Buyer services, chief's contrary statements on the cash that was retrieved.

04:08On the call records, in fact, the phone calls that were made by Justice Verma.

04:12His calls, remember, will be studied to determine what really happened on the night of 14th

04:17of March.

04:18Also, when the judge received information on fire at his residence, what did he exactly

04:22do then?

04:24What calls the judge made after receiving the information on the fire that had broken

04:29out at his residence?

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