The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a plea seeking the registration of a first information report against Delhi High Court judge Yashwant Varma amid allegations that unaccounted cash was found at his home, Live Law reported.

Calling the petition “premature”, the bench of Justices Abhay Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan said that the ongoing in-house inquiry would offer several options once it concluded.

The chief justice of India can direct an FIR to be registered or refer the matter to Parliament based on the inquiry report, the court said. “Today it is not the time to consider this petition,” it added.

Unaccounted cash was allegedly recovered at Varma’s official residence when emergency services responded to a fire there on March 14. The judge said he was in Bhopal at the time and claimed that the cash did not belong to him or his family.

According to a 1991 Constitution bench ruling in the K Veeraswami case, a criminal case cannot be filed against a High Court and Supreme Court judge or the chief justices of the High Court without first consulting the chief justice of India, The Hindu reported.

However, the petitioner argued that the ruling had in effect restricted police action by creating a “special class of privileged men/women, immune from the penal laws of the land”.

The court, however, held that it was not necessary to go into reading down past judgements at this stage of inquiry against Varma, Live Law reported.

“There are wider prayers against some of the decisions of this court seeking to read them down,” the court was quoted as saying. “At this stage, according to us, it is not necessary to go into that aspect. Subject to what is observed above petition is disposed of.”

On March 22, the Supreme Court released a report including a video and three photographs showing bundles of notes that were allegedly recovered from the judge’s home. The court had also set up a three-member committee to look into the allegations against Varma.

The panel comprises Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice Sheel Nagu, Himachal Pradesh High Court Chief Justice GS Sandhawalia and Karnataka High Court judge Anu Sivaraman.

The redacted report showed that Delhi High Court Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya had written to Varma on March 21, asking him to “account for the presence of money/cash” in a room located in his bungalow.

The Supreme Court Collegium on Monday recommended that Varma be repatriated to the Allahabad High Court, which is his parent High Court. The Union government has not yet approved the Collegium’s decision, Bar and Bench reported.


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