Justice Yashwant Varma has moved the Supreme Court challenging the in-house inquiry committee’s report that indicted him in the unaccounted cash row, Live Law reported on Friday.

Varma also challenged the recommendation made by Sanjiv Khanna, the chief justice of India when the report was submitted, to the president and the prime minister to initiate impeachment proceedings against him.

The plea by Varma came ahead of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, which will begin on Monday. The impeachment motion against him could be introduced during the session, according to reports.

In his petition, Varma argued that the in-house inquiry committee had reached conclusions without giving him a fair opportunity to respond, Live Law reported.

The committee proceeded in a pre-determined fashion and without finding concrete evidence, his petition said, adding that it merely drew adverse inferences against him after reversing the burden of proof.

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

Amid the row, he was transferred to the Allahabad High Court.

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 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.

After Varma declined to voluntarily retire or resign, Khanna sent the final inquiry committee report on the incident to the president and the prime minister.

The committee in its report had concluded that there was “sufficient substance” in the charges against Varma. The report, dated May 3, held that the judge’s misconduct was “serious enough to call for initiation of proceedings for removal”.

However, the report did not address questions about how the fire started, how much money was found, where the cash came from or where it is now.

To impeach a judge in Parliament, a removal motion is required to be signed by 100 Lok Sabha MPs or 50 Rajya Sabha MPs. If the motion is admitted, a three-member judicial committee investigates the matter. The Parliament votes on the impeachment if the committee finds misconduct. If the motion gets two-thirds of the votes, the president is advised to remove the judge.

Also read: Five crucial questions the report indicting Justice Varma does not answer