Five crucial questions the report indicting Justice Varma does not answer

A three-member committee constituted by the previous Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna to investigate allegations against Justice Yashwant Varma has concluded that there is “sufficient substance” in the charges.

On March 14, half-burnt wads of cash were allegedly recovered at a storeroom in Justice Yashwant Varma’s official residence in Delhi when emergency services responded to a fire at his home.

No police complaint has been filed thus far in the case, in spite of a petition in the Supreme Court requesting the same.

On March 22, the Supreme Court constituted a committee, comprising Chief Justice Sheel Nagu of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Chief Justice GS Sandhawalia of the Himachal Pradesh High Court and Justice Anu Sivaraman of the Karnataka High Court, to investigate the incident.

The committee in its report, dated May 3, held that Varma’s misconduct was “serious enough to call for initiation of proceedings for removal”.

Last week, the report was published by The Leaflet and Bar and Bench. It held that Varma betrayed public trust by allowing “highly suspicious material in shape of piles of currency notes to be stashed in the store room” of his official bungalow in Delhi when he was a judge at the Delhi High Court.

Varma, who was not in Delhi when the fire broke out, has alleged that...

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