Cracking the whip, Chief Justice of India, Justice Sanjiv Khanna on Saturday constituted a three-member committee to probe into the alleged recovery of huge unaccounted cash from the official residence of Delhi High Court judge, Justice Yashwant Verma and asked the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya not to assign any judicial work to him – the judge being inquired.

The three-member committee that will probe into the allegations of the recovery of huge amount of unaccounted cash from the official residence of Justice Yashwant Verma on March 14 – the Holi Day – after a fire broke out at his residence in Delhi – includes the Chief Justice of the Punjab & Haryana, High Court Justice Sheel Nagu, the Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court Justice GS Sandhawalia and a judge of Karnataka High Court, Justice Anu Sivaraman.

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A statement issued by the Supreme Court of India late on Saturday evening said, “The Chief Justice of India has constituted a three member Committee consisting of Mr. Justice Sheel Nagu, Chief Justice of the High Court of Punjab & Haryana, Mr. Justice G.S. Sandhawalia, Chief Justice of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh, and Ms. Anu Sivaraman, Judge of the High Court of Karnataka, for conducting an inquiry into the allegations against Mr. Justice Yashwant Varma, a sitting Judge of the High Court of Delhi.”

Withdrawing the judicial work from Justice Yashwant Verma, the CJI Khanna asked the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court not to assign him any judicial work for the time being.

“The Chief Justice of the High Court of Delhi for the time being has been asked not to assign any judicial work to Mr. Justice Yashwant Varma,” the Supreme Court statement said.

Asking the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court not to assign any judicial work to Justice Verma could be an indication that the proposal to transfer him to Allahabad High Court has been put on hold. The Allahabad High Court is the parent High Court of Justice Verma where he was first appointed as Additional Judge and later made a permanent judge.

The Allahabad High Court Bar Association has already passed a resolution stating that Justice Verma’s return to the parent High Court is not welcome and it could not be treated as a dumping ground of a judge under clouds.

The statement further said that the report submitted by the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court on the incident, response of Justice Yashwant Varma, and other documents, are being uploaded on the Supreme Court website.

The CJI Khanna constituted a three-member committee to inquire into the allegation on the recovery of huge unaccounted cash from the residence of Justice Verma after the receipt of report on the incident from the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, and the explanation of Justice Verma to the allegations.