Hours after controversy erupted over the alleged recovery of unaccounted cash from the residence of Delhi High Court Judge Justice Yashwant Varma, Delhi fire services chief Atul Garg said on Friday that firefighters found no cash during their operation to douse flames at the judge’s residence.
New Delhi:Hours after controversy erupted over the alleged recovery of unaccounted cash from the residence of Delhi High Court Judge Justice Yashwant Varma, Delhi fire services chief Atul Garg said on Friday that firefighters found no cash during their operation to douse flames at the judge’s residence.
In a statement, the Supreme Court also denied claims that the Collegium had recommended Justice Varma’s transfer to the Allahabad High Court in connection with the alleged cash recovered from his residence.
The top court clarified that the Collegium has yet to make any official recommendation to transfer him; rather, the proposal is still under consideration. The judicial appointments body has sought inputs from the consultee judges of the apex court, the Chief Justices of the concerned High Courts, and Justice Varma himself on the proposal.
There is, however, no police investigation into the alleged recovery of the cash, as no FIR has been lodged regarding the incident.
While the Opposition raised the issue of cash recovery in Parliament, the BJP reacted cautiously. During the morning session, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh said, “This morning, we have read about a shocking case of huge amounts of cash unearthed at the residence of a judge of the Delhi High Court.”
“The misinformation and rumours being spread regarding the incident at the residence of Justice Yashwant Varma are baseless,” the Supreme Court statement said.
The top court stated, “Upon receiving the information, the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court initiated an in-house enquiry procedure to collect evidence and information. The Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, who commenced his enquiry prior to the Collegium meeting on March 20, 2025, will submit his report to the Chief Justice of India today, March 21, 2025. The report will be examined and processed for further necessary action.”
The statement added, “The proposal to transfer Justice Yashwant Varma, the second senior-most judge in the Delhi High Court and a member of the Collegium, to his parent High Court, i.e., the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad — where he will be ninth in seniority — is independent and separate from the in-house enquiry procedure. The proposal was examined by the Collegium, comprising the Chief Justice of India and the four senior-most Judges of the Supreme Court, on March 20, 2025. Subsequently, letters were written to the consultee judges of the Supreme Court, the Chief Justices of the concerned High Courts, and Justice Yashwant Varma. The responses received will be examined and, thereafter, the Collegium will pass a resolution.”
The in-house enquiry procedure, set up and prescribed by the Supreme Court in C. Ravichandran Iyer v. Justice A.M. Bhattacharjee (1995) 5 SCC 457, is available on the Supreme Court of India website. The procedure was further elucidated in Additional District and Sessions Judge ‘X’ v. Registrar General, High Court of Madhya Pradesh (2015) 4 SCC 91.
The controversy over the purported recovery of cash took a turn after Garg clarified that no cash was recovered at the judge’s official residence. He said that the control room received a call about a blaze at Justice Varma's Lutyens Delhi residence at 11.35 pm on March 14, and two fire tenders were immediately dispatched to the scene. The fire tenders reached at 11.43 pm. The fire was contained in a storeroom stocked with stationery and domestic articles, and it took 15 minutes to control the flames. There were no casualties.
“Soon after dousing the flames, we informed the police about the fire incident. Thereafter, a team of fire department personnel left the scene. Our firefighters did not find any cash during their operation,” the DFS chief said.
Earlier in the day, the Allahabad High Court Bar Association opposed the transfer of Justice Varma, stating that his residence was not a “trash bin.” In a resolution, the association said, “We were taken aback that the Supreme Court has transferred Justice Yashwant Varma back to the Allahabad High Court...”
The controversy over the alleged recovery of cash was also raised in the Rajya Sabha, with chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar saying he would find a mechanism for holding a structured discussion on the issue.
Dhankhar expressed concern that the incident, which happened on March 14, did not come to light immediately. He said that if such an incident had involved a politician, bureaucrat, or industrialist, the person concerned would have become a target immediately. “Therefore, a systemic response that is transparent, accountable, and effective will surely be forthcoming,” he said.
The chairman added that he would contact the Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition to arrange a structured discussion during the session.
In a related development, Justice Varma, the second senior-most judge of the Delhi High Court, did not hold court on Friday — a fact communicated to advocates by his court master.
Delhi High Court Chief Justice D.K. Upadhyaya expressed pain and shock over the incident when a senior advocate mentioned the issue before the bench.
The top court already has an in-house inquiry mechanism to address allegations against judges of the Constitutional courts. According to the in-house enquiry procedure, the Chief Justice of India, after a preliminary inquiry, can form a committee of three Supreme Court judges to examine the matter after seeking the response of the judge concerned. Based on the panel’s report, further action can be taken. A judge of a constitutional court can be removed from office only through an impeachment motion passed by Parliament.
Reacting to the contentious reports, the Congress said that the issue cannot be hushed up by a mere transfer and asserted that it is important to determine whose money it is to maintain the country’s faith in the judiciary. Taking a swipe at the BJP-led Centre over the issue, the Congress said that the fire brigade is doing a better job than the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Congress media and publicity department head Pawan Khera stated that the discovery of such a huge amount of cash from the judge’s house is a very serious matter, adding that it cannot be dismissed by merely transferring him.
“Justice Varma was hearing the Unnao rape case and many other serious cases. To maintain the country's faith in the judiciary, it is important to determine whose money it is and why it was given to the judge,” Khera said in a post in Hindi on X. “While removing the blindfold from the eyes of the goddess of justice, a former CJI had said that the law is not blind — it looks at everyone equally. This should also be proved in this case. By the way, the fire brigade is doing a better job than the ED and the CBI,” he added.
Senior advocate and Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal said that the issue of corruption within the judiciary is very serious and called for a more transparent process in the appointment of judges. “It is time for the Supreme Court to start examining how appointments are made and ensure that the process is more transparent and careful,” he added.
The BJP, however, reacted cautiously to the alleged discovery of cash, stating that the party should not comment on court affairs and that the CJI was already handling the matter. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra cited media reports to say that the CJI had taken a decision on the matter, which has cast an uncomfortable public spotlight on the higher judiciary following reports that firefighters and police stumbled upon a large amount of cash at Justice Varma's residence while trying to douse a fire.
BJP's IT department head Amit Malviya, however, noted in a post on X that Justice Varma had "halted the CBI investigations into corruption allegations against Shibu Soren, as directed by the Lokpal." Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Soren is facing corruption allegations, and his party, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, now led by his son Hemant Soren, is part of the opposition INDIA bloc.
According to information on the Delhi High Court website, Justice Varma enrolled as an advocate on August 8, 1992. He was appointed as an additional judge of the Allahabad High Court on October 13, 2014, and took oath as a permanent judge on February 1, 2016, before being appointed as a judge of the Delhi High Court on October 11, 2021. He currently heads a division bench handling cases related to sales tax, GST, company appeals, and other original side appeals.
The incident has also elicited strong reactions from legal experts, with some calling for Justice Varma’s resignation. Senior advocate Vikas Singh described the matter as “very serious” and said that the judge should be asked to resign, while senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi argued that the apex court should conduct an in-house inquiry to ascertain all the facts after giving the judge a chance to respond.
Senior advocate Indira Jaising urged the Supreme Court Collegium to make a “full, free, and frank” disclosure of the facts, noting her surprise that information about the incident, which allegedly occurred on March 14, was only released on March 21.
