New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to examine a plea seeking a direction to Delhi Police to lodge an FIR in connection with the alleged discovery of a semi-burnt stash of cash from the official residence of Delhi High Court judge Yashwant Varma.
The alleged cash discovery happened following a fire at Justice Varma's Lutyens Delhi residence at around 11.35 pm on March 14. The matter was mentioned by Advocate Mathews J Nedumpara before a bench led by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna.
Nedumpara urged the bench to grant an urgent hearing in the matter. The bench told the lawyer that his petition would come up for consideration and he should check up with the registry.
The petitioner appreciated the CJI for making public all documents, including the video in the matter. The petitioner said an FIR should be registered against the judge. The bench asked the lawyer not to make any public statements, while assuring him that he would get a date of hearing.
The plea, filed by advocate Nedumpara and three others on March 23, also challenges the 1991 judgment in the K Veeraswami case in which the top court ruled that no criminal proceedings could be initiated against a judge of the high court or the top court without the prior nod of the Chief Justice of India.
The plea said the immunity to judges violated the constitutional principle of equality before the law and raised concerns about judicial accountability and the rule of law.
"To declare that the incident of recovery of huge sums ..., from the official residence of Justice Yashwant Varma, by the fire force/police when their services for sought to douse fire, constitute a cognisable offence punishable under various provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and that the police is duty bound to register an FIR...," the plea said.
It said that equality before law and equal protection of law is the "core of our Constitution and all are equal before law and the criminal laws apply equally to all, irrespective of one's status, position, etc".
The CJI constituted an in-house committee to conduct an inquiry and asked Delhi HC Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya not to assign any judicial work to Justice Varma. On Monday, Justice Varma was de-rostered till further orders.
The Supreme Court collegium led by CJI Sanjiv Khanna, on Monday issued a resolution recommending the Centre to repatriate Justice Yashwant Varma to the Allahabad High Court, his parent high court, from where he was transferred to the Delhi High Court in 2021.
On Tuesday, three members of the SC-appointed in-house committee visited Justice Varma's residence here, commencing their inquiry into the alleged cash discovery row.
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