NEW DELHI, March 24: The Delhi High Court on Monday “with immediate effect” withdrew judicial work from Justice Yashwant Varma, who is subject to an inquiry after the purported discovery of a large stash of cash following a fire at his official residence, till further orders.
The high court issued a notice on the development.
Another note attached to the causelist of the day on the high court’s website said the court master of division bench-III, which was headed by Justice Varma, would assign dates in matters listed before Monday.
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“In view of the recent events, the judicial work from Justice Yashwant Varma is withdrawn with immediate effect, till further orders,” the note, with the registrar (listing) as the signatory, said.
The note was issued by the registrar following a notice of Delhi High Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya.
Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna had previously asked Justice Upadhyaya not to assign any judicial work to Justice Varma, the second senior-most judge of the Delhi High Court.
Justice Varma was heading a division bench, which was dealing with cases of sales tax, goods and services tax, company appeals and other appeals of the original side.
The roster handled by the division bench of Justices Yashwant Varma and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar has now been allotted to a division bench of Justices Subramonium Prasad and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar.
Now the division bench-III will be headed by Justice Prathiba M Singh.
The Supreme Court on March 22 uploaded on its website the inquiry report of Chief Justice Upadhyaya — complete with photos and videos — over the alleged discovery.
CJI Khanna has constituted a three-member committee to conduct an inquiry into the allegations against Justice Varma aside from ordering an in-house inquiry following a report from Justice Upadhyaya.
Justice Upadhyaya’s report to the CJI contains material with regard to official communication that says “four to five semi-burnt sacks of Indian currency notes” were found from the judge’s Lutyens home.
Justice Varma has strongly denounced the allegations in the cash-discovery row and said no cash was ever placed in the storeroom of his residence either by him or any of his family members.
In his response to the high court chief justice, Justice Varma said the allegation of cash discovery from his residence clearly appeared to be a “conspiracy to frame and malign him”. (PTI)
