The leaders of the six Bar Associations belonging to five High Couts – Allahabad, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh (Jabalpur), Karnataka, and Kerala – met Chief Justice of India Justice Sanjiv Khanna and other members of the top court collegium seeking withdrawal of March 24, 2025, collegium recommendation transferring Justice Yashawant Verma – embroiled in the controversy of the recovery of huge cash from his official residence on March 14 – from Delhi High Court to Allahabad High Court.

Besides Chief Justice Khanna, other members of the top court collegium include Justice B R Gavai, Justice Surya Kant, Justice Abhey S Oka and Justice Vikram Nath.

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On March 24, the top court collegium had recommended the transfer of Justice Verma to Allahabad High that triggered protests by the Bar Association of Allahabad High Court which said that the High Court could not be treated as a dumping ground of such a judge.

The Allahabad High Court is the parent high court of Justice Verma where initially he was appointed as an Additional judge and later confirmed as a permanent judge.

In addition to the withdrawal of judicial work from Justice Verma that was ordered on March 22, the six Bar Associations have sought the withdrawal of all administrative work as well from Justice Verma, and to set the criminal law in motion as is applicable to any government servant.

“The Bar Associations requests the CJI and the collegium to withdraw transfer of Justice Yashwant Varma and to withdraw all administrative work in addition to the judicial work which is already withdrawn” and to “To set the criminal law in motion as is applicable to any government servant”, said the joint statement issued by the leaders of six Bar Association.

The joint statement by the representatives of the Bar Association said, “According to the report of the CJ of High court of Delhi somebody removed the articles from the premises on 15.3.2025 and had the criminal law been sent on motion, the evidence would not have been destroyed. In these kinds of crimes, there would be involvement of others and non-registration of (case) would adversely affect their prosecution.”

The statement has said that the Presidents of Bar Associations will meet at Allahabad in the event of non-withdrawal of the transfer order of Justice Yashwant Varma to show solidarity with the Allahabad High Court Bar Association of Allahabad.

The Bar Associations have sought the laying down of the accountability standards for judges of the higher judiciary and reassessment of the current in-house procedure approved by the Supreme Court in 1999, and Restatement of values of Judicial Life approved in 1997, followed by the Bangalore Principles of 2002.

The Chief Justice Khanna on March 22, had setup a three-member committee to inquire into haul of huge unaccounted cash from the official residence of Justice Verma and had withdrawal the judicial work from him asking the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya not to assign any judicial work to him.

The judicial work was withdrawn by the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya on March 24. March 22 and 23 were weekends.