New Delhi: The collegium of the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Sanjeev Khanna, on Thursday recommended Delhi High Court Judge Justice Yashwant Verma to be transferred after a complaint about the recovery of cash from his residence.
Justice Verma is likely to bring back his parents’ High Court, Allahabad, from where he was taken to Delhi in 2021, Thrint has learned, and can also be asked to resign later.
Although a formal decision has been taken on the transfer, the resolution is yet to be uploaded on the Supreme Court website, as is practice.
Show full article
According to Supreme Court sources, the cash was found by a team of firefighters in the outhouse of the official bungalow of the judge last week, who was called to set fire. Justice Verma was not in the city when the incident took place and the fire brigade was called by his family members. His 82 -year -old mother and daughter were at home.
After bringing the fire under control, the official team of the fire brigade and the police, which was present on the site, was found cash, some of them were damaged, causing official entries in the records. The information was shared with senior police officers, who in return informed senior officials in the government.
The details about the recovery of unaccounted cash were provided to CJI Khanna, who immediately called the collegium dealing with the transfer of the High Court judges.
Sources said that the government officials had handed over a video recording of unaccounted money found to the CJI at the judge’s residence. Although Justice Khanna did not show the video clip to other collegium members, he explained the material to them, he said.
Apart from CJI, he is a member of this panel in seniority in seniority. Currently, Justice Bra Gavai, Surya Kant, Abhay S. Oka and Vikram Nath are members of the collegium.
Unanimously, the collegium members agreed to take Justice Verma out of Delhi. According to the decision taken, which is yet to be made public through a proposal, the judge is likely to return to his parents’ High Court, where he was appointed as a judge on 13 October 2014.
However the collegium has another view. Keeping in mind the severity of the issue, members feel that the transfer to Justice Verma will not send a proper signal with a transfer and need to do something else.
Therefore, Justice Verma can be asked to resign, sources told Thrint.
A source said, “This is a CJI’s privilege, which has called for a report from the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court on the incident. After going through the report, the CJI will call the next step.”
Since the issue of transfer does not require any report, the collegium found it fit to move forward, the sources said.
If the CJI asks for the resignation of Justice Verma and later refuses, an in-house check, which is the first step towards the removal of it by Parliament, can be started.
The in-house Inquiry process, determined in 1999, is a mechanism designed to address corruption, wrongdoing complaints or inconsistency against a High Court or Supreme Court judge.
Under this, the judge is given an opportunity to respond to the allegations. If CJI feels that a deep investigation is required, he can set up an investigation panel that includes the Supreme Court and the High Court judges who then make a proper hearing of the complaint, during which the complainant is also investigated.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Also read: SC wants a relationship on its own decision of 2017 on the process of nominating senior advocates