The government had notified the transfer of Justice Varma from Delhi High Court to his parent Allahabad High Court.
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court-appointed three-judge panel has submitted its inquiry report to Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna on the cash discovery allegations against the then Delhi High Court judge Justice Yashwant Varma who has since been transferred to the Allahabad high court.
The three-member panel finalised its report on Saturday and submitted it to the CJI the next day.
Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna had on March 22 appointed the three-member panel comprising Justice Sheel Nagu, Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice G.S. Sandhawalia, Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court and Justice Anu Sivaraman of Karnataka.
The report is said to contain findings of the panel into the alleged cash discovery row following a fire at Justice Varma's Lutyens Delhi residence at around 11.35 pm on March 14, prompting the fire officials to rush to the spot and douse it.
The controversy was raised following a report on the cash discovery row, leading to several steps, including a preliminary inquiry by Delhi High Court Chief Justice D.K. Upadhyaya and taking away judicial work from Justice Varma in the Delhi high court and later his transfer to the Allahabad high court sans judicial work.
"The three-member committee... Constituted for conducting an inquiry into the allegations against Justice Yashwant Varma, a sitting judge, has submitted its report dated May 3 to the Chief Justice of India on May 4," the apex court said in a statement.
On March 28, the top court had asked the chief justice of the Allahabad high court not to assign any judicial work for now to Justice Varma.
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 The Delhi High Court had previously withdrawn work from the judge following a directive from the CJI.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 government had notified the transfer of Justice Varma from Delhi High Court to his parent Allahabad High Court.
On March 22, CJI Khanna while constituting the three-member committee decided to upload on the apex court website the inquiry report of Delhi High Court Chief Justice D.K. Upadhyaya. It included photos and videos of the alleged discovery of a huge stash of cash.
Justice Varma denied the charges and said no cash was ever placed in the storeroom either by him or any of his family members.
