Delhi, July 18:While the government of India plans to move a motion to remove tinted Justice Varma in Parliament's Monsoon session beginning July 21, he has moved the Supreme Court of India for relief.
Allahabad High Court Judge Yashwant Varma has prayed the SC to invalidate a report by an in-house inquiry panel, which found him guilty of misconduct in the cash discovery row.
Varma has sought quashing of the May 8 recommendation by then Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna urging the Parliament to initiate impeachment against him.
In his petition, Justice Varma submitted that the inquiry "reversed the burden of proof", requiring him to investigate and disprove the charges levelled against him.
Alleging that the panel's findings were based on a preconceived narrative, Justice Varma said the inquiry timelines were driven solely by the urge to conclude proceedings swiftly, even at the expense of "procedural fairness".
The petition contended that the inquiry panel put their report without affording him a full and fair time for hearing.
Acting on the report, former Chief Justice of India Khanna wrote to President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi recommending the judge's impeachment.
The report of the inquiry panel probing the incident had said that Justice Varma and his family members had covert or active control over the store room where a huge cache of half-burnt cash was found, proving his misconduct which is enough to go for his removal.
The three-judge panel headed by Chief Justice Sheel Nagu of the Punjab and Haryana High Court conducted the inquiry for 10 days, examined 55 witnesses and visited Varma’s official residence on March 14 and initiated a probe from the scene where the huge cache of semi-charred cash was recovered.
Worth mentioning, Justice Varma, was a sitting judge of the Delhi High Court who is now continuing in the Judgeship in the Allahabad High Court. He was transferred here, after he caught a sorry figure allegedly for his indulgence in corruption.
