New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday said the chief justice of the Allahabad High Court was asked not to assign any judicial work for now to Justice Yashwant Varma, embroiled in the cash discovery row, upon assuming charge.
On March 24, the apex court collegium recommended the repatriation of Justice Varma to his parent Allahabad High Court. The Delhi High Court had previously withdrawn work from the judge following a directive from the CJI.
“The chief justice of Allahabad High Court for the time being has been asked not to assign any judicial work to Justice Yashwant Varma, when he assumes charge as a judge of the Allahabad High Court,” the apex court’s press release said on Friday.
The development assumes significance as the government on Friday notified the transfer of Delhi High Court Justice Yashwant Varma to his parent Allahabad High Court.
The order comes amid the purported discovery of burnt wads of cash from the judge’s official residence in the national capital after a fire.
The law ministry issued a notification announcing his transfer.
Recommending his repatriation to the government, the Supreme Court collegium had said the move was separate from an in-house probe ordered by the top court over the alleged discovery of cash from the judge’s Lutyen’s Delhi residence after a fire incident at around 11.35 pm on March 14.
The apex court on Friday also rejected a PIL seeking Delhi Police to register an FIR over the alleged discovery of burnt wads of cash from Justice Varma’s official residence, calling it “premature”.
On March 22, Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna constituted a three-member committee to conduct an in-house inquiry into allegations and decided to upload on the apex court website the inquiry report of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya of the Delhi High Court. It included photos and videos of the alleged discovery of a huge stash of cash.
Justice Varma denounced any insinuation and said no cash was ever placed in the storeroom either by him or any of his family members.
(Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ’s editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
