Supreme Court collegium recommends Justice Varma's transfer to Allahabad High Court

India Today

The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended the repatriation of Justice Yashwant Varma to the Allahabad High Court amidst an ongoing inquiry into a cash haul at his Delhi residence.

Transcript

00:00I now want to shift focus to the other big story we're tracking here in India today

00:04and that's the heat mounting on Justice Yashwant Verma of the Delhi High Court

00:09after that cash haul at his official residence in the National Capital. The

00:15images that you see on the left of your screen, there was a fire on the 14th of

00:19March at his residence. That's the storeroom and that is where it is

00:24claimed that a large stash of cash was found partially burnt. Those are videos

00:31that were taken by the first responders from the Delhi Police and the Delhi Fire

00:36Service. Now a three-member inquiry panel of judges, they will be probing this

00:42unaccounted cash or prima facie the irregularity in the recovery. This after

00:49the Supreme Court uploaded reports about what was found in the initial fact

00:55finding mission carried out by the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court. Now

01:00Justice Verma has since been derostered by the High Court and all judicial work

01:05has been withdrawn from him. A three-member High Court panel will probe

01:10the unaccounted cash haul recovery. The Justice, meanwhile Justice Verma has been

01:16barred from deleting, he's been directed not to delete anything from his mobile

01:22phone whether it's calls or messages or any communication that took place on

01:29his phone in the past six months. Justice Verma has denied these allegations. He's

01:34denied the cash belonged either to him or any member of his family. Justice

01:39Verma said that the storeroom from where those half-burnt wads of cash were

01:44recovered, he said he wasn't aware of it, nothing was shown to him. This was

01:48unlocked at all times and accessible to anybody including the house staff and

01:53those who came from outside like the Central Public Works Department workers.

01:57But there are multiple contradictory statements. Authorities say the money was

02:02found in a locked storeroom, the cash was in sacks. Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep

02:09Dhankar, Vice President of India met the leader of the house Jagat Prakash Nadda

02:13and Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge not just to discuss the cash

02:17seizure but multiple other issues and the road ahead.

02:43It seemed to be very very strange. Judges don't have a lot of

03:12privacy in their houses. Not only do they have their own staff, the CPWD also

03:16as the inquiry report says, the CPWD has access to all of these buildings as well

03:22as their security people. Significantly, when you look at corruption, when you

03:26look at Nirav Modi, when you look at Lalit Modi, when you look at any of this,

03:29is cash recovered? It's not common. You'll either set up a shell company,

03:35send it to the Cayman Islands or something similar, especially if you have

03:39legal training. So therefore, I think that there are many questions to be asked.

04:09There are of course multiple discrepancies in what Justice Verma has

04:29said and what the initial investigation seem to have revealed. For example, there

04:35is one aspect. Let's just focus on that. The Honourable Justice has said the cash

04:40didn't belong to me and that the storeroom was unlocked and accessible to

04:43all. No cash was seized on the spot. The daughter and the secretary alerted the

04:50fire services. So this is what Justice Verma is believed to have told the

04:55Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court when they met in the guest house of the

04:59Delhi High Court. Now, what the authorities are claiming? Half burnt wads of cash

05:04were recovered in the storeroom. Apparently, the 70th battalion of the

05:09Central Reserve Police Force, the Foxtrot company that was deployed to

05:14protect Justice Verma or elements of the 70th company, 70th battalion's Foxtrot

05:19company, they said that the storeroom was always kept locked. So that's one

05:23discrepancy. The cash was found or burnt cash was found inside sacks in that

05:28storeroom. No call was made to the fire service from the house. The house

05:36we are told a call was made to the to the personal secretary and it was the

05:40personal secretary who then called the PCR and it's the PCR that informed the

05:45fire service. That is what we are being told. There's breaking news that's coming

05:50in. The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended the repatriation of Justice

05:56Yashwant Verma to the Allahabad High Court. This comes amidst protests from

06:02the Allahabad High Court Bar Association against the recommendation of the

06:07Collegium against the repatriation of Justice Yashwant Verma to the Allahabad

06:12High Court. The Allahabad High Court Bar Association had actually sought

06:17impeachment proceedings be initiated against Justice Verma. In fact, that

06:22letter from the Bar Association of the Allahabad High Court very clearly said

06:28are we a dustbin? When the Allahabad High Court Bar Association president joined

06:33me on India Today, his point was if Justice Verma is not fit to carry out

06:39duties in Delhi according to the Supreme Court Collegium, then why is it that he's

06:44fit to carry out duties in Allahabad? Why are we being treated like a dustbin was

06:50the question he posed not just in that letter but also in that conversation and

06:54I quickly want to cut across to India Today's legal editor Nalini Sharma

06:58joining me for more on this. So Nalini, this was, did we get this wrong initially

07:04or was this Kabhi Haan, Kabhi Naan or is this completely unlinked? Initially it

07:08was said that the Collegium had recommended he be repatriated to the

07:12Allahabad High Court. Then it was said that it's not linked to this case and

07:15now we are breaking that he is being repatriated to the Allahabad High Court.

07:20Well Gaurav, we can confirm that there were two separate meetings of the

07:25Collegium members that had happened where this issue regarding Justice Verma

07:28was discussed. The first meeting was on the 20th of March where his issue of

07:33transfer or the repatriation back to the Allahabad High Court was discussed after

07:37which there was source-based information that the Collegium has decided to go

07:41ahead with it but there was no official resolution that was issued by the

07:44Collegium in that regard. The Collegium had also clarified that his transfer is

07:49separate from the inquiry that's going on and one does not have anything to do

07:53with the other but it's difficult to believe that considering that it's all

07:57happening at the same time. The second meeting happened today on the 24th of

08:01March after which the Collegium has officially issued its resolution. It has

08:05said that Justice Verma will be repatriated back to the Allahabad High

08:09Court which is his parent High Court. Considering that judicial work has

08:13already been withdrawn from him in the Delhi High Court, there is a likelihood

08:16that even if he is sent back to the Allahabad High Court, he will not

08:19immediately be granted any judicial work at least till the time when the

08:24three-member inquiry panel is still conducting its fact-finding inquiry and

08:28determining what were the events of the night of 14th of March when the fire had

08:33happened in Justice Verma's residence. Another important aspect that needs to

08:37be pointed out over here is that the Collegium so far has only recommended

08:41his name. Yes, the resolution has been issued but it's only a recommendation. It

08:45will now go to the central government and the central government will take the

08:48final call on whether or not Justice Verma should in fact be sent back to the

08:53Allahabad High Court. In case the central government is not an agreement, they can

08:56send the file back to the Collegium and the Collegium then has a decision to

09:00whether re-treat their recommendation or decide on some other mode of action. So,

09:07it remains to be seen now what happens with the central government considering

09:10the ball is in their court. Will they expedite the repatriation back to the

09:14Allahabad High Court or will they sit on the file for now at least till the time

09:17that the inquiry is going on. So, lots to expect in the coming few days. You know

09:21Nalini, there are multiple questions that are being raised virtually every day

09:25ever since the 14th of March incident of which we got to know only after the

09:3220th of March on transparency or whether the Collegium system, their decision

09:38making is very opaque, whether there needs to be more accountability and do

09:43we know the reason why is he being transferred to Allahabad High Court? Why

09:49is it that when no work is being given to him in Delhi, he should be sent to

09:53Allahabad? Is it to ensure that there's no interference in any of the

09:57investigations in Delhi or whether he gets work in Allahabad or doesn't get

10:01work in Allahabad? Is there clarity on that aspect? Well Gaurav, it's best not to

10:07speculate at this point and considering that the Collegium has made a clear

10:12statement saying that the transfer has nothing to do with the ongoing inquiry

10:15so that is what we are going to take on record and that's what we are going to

10:19stick with at this point but at the same time it's important to point out that

10:22considering the kind of allegations that have been leveled against Justice Varma

10:27it was crucial that judicial work was taken away from him on an

10:32immediate basis keeping in mind that an inquiry panel has been set up already

10:36and the inquiry panel has still not come up with its report so it's neither here

10:41nor there till the time the inquiry panel does not give the report to the

10:44Chief Justice of India we won't know the facts of what happened on the 14th of

10:49March until the inquiry is complete and remember it's only a fact-finding

10:53inquiry so there will be no investigation that will be done by the

10:56judges but the judges will formulate what was the chain of events what were

11:00the call data records of Justice Yashwant Varma on the 14th night who all

11:04did he speak to at what time did he get to know about the fire who all did he

11:08call after the fire broke it out all of these are very crucial pieces of facts

11:12that need to be put together to determine exactly what is it that had

11:16gone down on the night of the 14th of March because remember there are also

11:20contradictory statements by the authorities themselves including the

11:24Delhi Fire Services Chief who had first said that there was no cash recovered

11:27and then had taken a u-turn on his own statement so all of those things will be

11:31analyzed by the three-member panel that has been set up by the Chief Justice of

11:35India they will submit a report before CGI Khanna and then it remains to be

11:39seen what is the action taken by CGI Khanna there are a few possibilities the

11:44Collegium can ask Justice Yashwant Varma to step down and given his

11:48resignation as a High Court judge in case they find that there is in fact any

11:53credible evidence behind all the allegations that are against him and in

11:59case of course Justice Varma decides not to resign on his own then the process of

12:03impeachment can happen which is going to be very interesting to watch out

12:06because remember in the history of India Gaurav not a single judge has been

12:10impeached yet there have been several proposals but none of the proposals have

12:14fully gone through so what remains to be seen and the question on everybody's

12:17mind today is will Justice Yashwant Varma in case the evidence is found

12:21against him will he be the first Indian judge to actually be impeached

12:25we'll be tracking that story very very closely Nalini for the moment many

12:29thanks for joining me

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