Cash row: Delhi HC Judge Yashwant Varma Transferred Back to Parent Allahabad High Court

New Delhi/Prayagraj: Delhi High Court judge Yashwant Varma, embroiled in the cash discovery row, has been transferred back to his parent Allahabad High Court. The decision was taken on Monday by the Supreme Court collegium hours after Delhi High Court Chief Justice D.K. Upadhyaya withdrew all judicial work from Justice Varma.

A public interest litigation was also moved before the apex court seeking directions to the Delhi police to lodge an FIR over the alleged discovery of the huge stash of cash from the official residence of Justice Varma, who is facing an inquiry by a three-member inquiry committee constituted by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna for a "deeper probe" over the incident at his official residence.

The collegium’s recommendation for the transfer of Justice Varma became public after the apex court put the resolution on its official website. The resolution said: “The Supreme Court Collegium in its meetings held on March 20 and 24, 2025 has recommended the repatriation of Justice Yashwant Varma, Judge, High Court of Delhi, to the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad.”

The alleged cash discovery was reported following a fire at Justice Varma's official residence in the Lutyen’s Zone at about 11.35 pm on March 14 Holi festival, prompting the fire officials to rush to the spot and douse it.

In the apex court, the PIL has challenged 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 CJI.

The plea, filed by advocate Mathews J. Nedumpara and three others, also said the immunity of judges violated the constitutional principle of equality before the law and raised concerns about judicial accountability and the rule of law.

The plea also sought a direction to the Centre to take effective and meaningful action for curbing corruption across all levels of judiciary, including the enactment of the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill 2010, which has lapsed.

Meanwhile, the Allahabad High Court Bar Association on Monday demanded the scrutiny of all judgments of Justice Yashwant Varma and opposed his proposed repatriation to his parent Allahabad high court. The bar body further urged the Chief Justice of India to “immediately recommend” to the government to draw up impeachment proceedings against Justice Varma.

Bar association president Anil Tiwari referred to a number of resolutions which said: “The High Court Bar Association opposes any proposed transfer of Justice Yashwant Varma to Allahabad high court or its Lucknow bench or to any other high court." It added: “All the judgments delivered by Justice Varma during his tenure of a judge at the Allahabad High Court and Delhi High Court be reviewed in order to inspire confidence of the people at large to regain public faith in the judicial system.”

The bar body also said: “The CJI should immediately permit the filing of FIR and investigation by the CBI, ED and other investigative agencies with full permission to the investigative agencies to apply the law of the land to every offender.”

Earlier, in an unprecedented move, the apex court late on March 22 had uploaded on its website an in-house inquiry report, including photos and videos, into the alleged discovery of a huge stash of cash at the residence of Justice Varma.

The report contains photos and videos of the cash allegedly discovered in a storeroom at Justice Varma's house during a firefighting operation on the night of Holi, March 14, besides his response.

Justice Varma has "unequivocally" denied any cash being placed in the storeroom either by him or any of his family members while "strongly denouncing the suggestion that the alleged cash belonged" to them. He said the allegations of cash discovery from his official residence clearly appeared to be a conspiracy to frame and malign him.

The inquiry report submitted by Chief Justice Upadhyaya also contained material with regard to official communication which says "four to five semi-burnt stacks of Indian currency" were found. The report said: “On examining the incident reported, the material available and the response of Justice Yashwant Varma, what I find is that the Commissioner of Police in his report dated March 16, 2025 has reported that as per the guard posted at the residence of Justice Yashwant Varma, the debris and other partially burnt articles were removed from the room where the fire had broken out in the morning of March 15, 2025.”

The March 21 report, which was made public the next day, said: "The enquiry conducted by me, prima facie, does not reveal possibility of entry or access to the room by any person other than those residing in the bungalow, the servants, the gardeners and CPWD personnel, if any… I am of the prima facie opinion that the entire matter warrants a deeper probe.”

Following the recommendation, the SC constituted a three-member inquiry committee comprising Justice Sheel Nagu, Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Himachal Pradesh Chief Justice G.S. Sandhawalia and Karnataka High Court's Justice Anu Sivaraman.