Cash discovery at Delhi HC judge’s home: Lawyer expresses ‘pain’, HC says ‘conscious’
New Delhi, Mar 21 (PTI) A senior lawyer appearing in the Delhi High Court on Friday expressed “shock and pain” after an alleged incident of cash discovery at the official residence of its sitting judge Justice Yashwant Varma came to light.
The purported discovery followed a major fire at the residence.
After the lawyer said many in the bar were “shaken” by the development, Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya lamented, “So is everybody. We are conscious.”
Senior advocate Arun Bhardwaj mentioned before a bench comprising the chief justice and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela to take some steps to stop such incidents from occurring in the future.
“Today’s incident has pained us a lot, many of us. Please take some steps on the administrative side so that these incidents do not happen in future and the truthfulness of the judicial system is maintained,” Bhardwaj said.
He added, “We respect the system a lot. Each of the judges are respected a lot. We are shaken my lords and demoralised. Please take some steps. I am not expressing my pain any further and I am sure I am expressing the pain of many of my brothers. Please take some steps to see that such incidents do not happen.”
At around 11 am, the court master of Justice Varma’s court announced that the division bench was on leave on Friday and any urgent mentioning could be made before another bench.
The Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna has reportedly decided to transfer Justice Varma from the Delhi High Court to his parent Allahabad High Court following the incident.
Justice Varma was currently heading a division bench, which was dealing with cases of sales tax, GST, company appeals and other appeals of the original side.
He was enrolled as an advocate on August 8, 1992. The judge was appointed as an additional judge of the Allahabad High Court on October 13, 2014.
According to official information, he took oath as a permanent judge of the Allahabad High Court on February 1, 2016 and was appointed as a judge of the Delhi High Court on October 11, 2021.
