New Delhi: The Centre, on Friday, cleared the return of Justice Yashwant Varma to the Allahabad High Court. However, he will have precious little to do there. The Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court has been directed not to assign any judicial work to him for the moment.
Justice Varma, a judge in the Delhi High Court, has been in the news lately over allegations of bundles of cash being found in his official residence on Tughlaq Road in New Delhi, during a fire on the night of March 14.
The Supreme Court has, since, set up a three-member committee to probe the allegations and had asked the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, not to assign any judicial work to Justice Varma. A decision was then taken by the Supreme Court to transfer Justice Varma to the Allahabad High Court, his parent court.
This was met with stiff resistance from the bar association there. The Allahabad Bar Association went on a strike and even threatened a nationwide movement against Justice Varma’s transfer back to the Allahabad High Court after the scandal broke. Not assigning any judicial work to him, till the Supreme Court-appointed committee submits it’s report, may help to bring things under control.
Meanwhile, on Friday, the Supreme Court bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan turned down a plea by advocate Mathews Nedumpara to register an FIR in the case.
The Supreme Court bench told Nedumpara that it would not be correct to entertain the plea ‘at this stage’ as an in-house inquiry is pending. “The in-house inquiry is ongoing. If the report sees something wrong, FIR can be directed, or [the] matter can be referred to the Parliament. Today is not the time to consider it,” the bench held.
Justice Varma, on his part, has written to the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, saying that the allegation is an effort to malign his character. He claimed that the room where the cash was allegedly discovered was always left unlocked and was accessible to all. He also maintained that no cash was shown to either his staff or family members.
