The Supreme Court on Friday in a statement said that Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya, on receiving information on the discovery of unaccounted cash from the official residence of Justice Yashwant Verma, commenced the in-house enquiry “collecting evidence and information” regarding allegations and a report will be submitted to Chief Justice of India, Justice Sanjiv Khanna today (March 21).
“The report will be examined and processed for further and necessary action,” the statement said.
In the statement, the top court termed as “misinformation and rumours” report that the Supreme court has ordered an “in-house’ inquiry on the discovery of unaccounted cash from the official residence of Justice Yashwant Verma and has recommended his transfer to the Allahabad High Court – the parent High Court of Justice Verma where he was initially appointed as Additional Judge and later became a permanent judge.
To clear the air, the statement referred to its September 5, 1995 judgment in C Ravichandran Iyer vs Justice AM Bhattacharjee case and the subsequent December 18, 2014, judgment in Additional District and Sessions Judge ‘X’ vs Registrar General, High Court of Madhya Pradesh case.
While the September 5, 1995 judgment laid down the procedure for in-house probe, the December 18, 2014, judgment elucidated and explained it.
The statement further said, “On receiving the information, the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court commenced the in-house enquiry procedure collecting evidence and information. The Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, who had commenced his enquiry prior to the Collegium meeting on 20th March 2025, will be submitting his report to the Chief Justice of India today i.e. on 21st March 2025. The report will be examined and processed for further and necessary action.”
Denying that top court collegium has recommended the transfer of Justice Yashwant Verma, the statement said, “The proposal for transfer of Mr. Justice Yashwant Varma, who is 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 inquiry procedure.”
The statement further said, “The proposal was examined by the Collegium comprising of the Chief Justice of India and four senior-most Judges of the Supreme Court on 20th March 2025, and thereafter letters were written to the consultee Judges of the Supreme Court, the Chief Justices of the High Courts concerned and Mr Justice Yashwant Varma. Responses received will be examined and, thereupon, the Collegium will pass a resolution.”
The in-house inquiry has been initiated against Justice Varma by the Chief Justice of Delhi high Court following the alleged recovery of stash of cash from his official residence in Delhi when the fire fighters were extinguishing the fire that broke out at his residence on March 14 – the Holi day.
The reports say that fire at Justice Verma’s residence inadvertently led to the recovery of cash by the firefighter. The reports said the cash was found initially by fire-fighters when they were extinguishing the fire. Justice Verma was not present in his house when the fire had taken place.
In the Delhi High Court, members of the Bar brought up the issue before High Court Chief Justice Devendra Upadhyaya and requested him to take action, the Chief Justice replied that judges are aware of the issue.
Besides Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna, other members of the five-judge top court collegium are Justice BR Gavai, Justice Surya Kant, Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Vikram Nath.
Justice Yashwant Verma with a legal practice of 22 years and 10 years as judge of the High Court, is at number three in seniority in Delhi High Court.
Justice Verma was designated a Senior Advocate in 2013 and was appointed as an additional judge of the Allahabad High Court in October 2014. He was made a permanent judge in February 2016. Later, he was transferred to Delhi High Court where he assumed charge on October 11, 2021.