Cash Discovery Case: Panel Submits Report on Justice Varma to Lok Sabha Speaker

NEW DELHI, May 19: An inquiry committee probing allegations against Justice Yashwant Varma has submitted its report to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla in connection with removal proceedings initiated over the alleged discovery of unaccounted cash at his official residence.

The Lok Sabha Secretariat said on Monday that the report, prepared under the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968, will be placed before both Houses of Parliament in due course. The Monsoon Session, expected in July, is likely to be the next opportunity for its tabling.

The three-member committee was constituted by the Speaker on August 12, 2025, following allegations linked to a fire incident on March 14, 2025, at Justice Varma’s official residence in Delhi. Firefighters had allegedly found burnt currency in a storeroom during the incident.

At the time, Justice Varma was serving as a judge of the Delhi High Court and was later repatriated to the Allahabad High Court. An in-house inquiry headed by then Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna had observed that he had “active or tacit control” over the storeroom where the cash was allegedly found.

In July 2025, over 200 MPs reportedly signed a motion seeking his removal, triggering the formal inquiry process under constitutional provisions. However, Justice Varma has since resigned from his post as a judge of the Allahabad High Court.

According to officials familiar with judicial procedures, a judge’s resignation becomes effective once submitted to the President and made public, and does not require formal acceptance. With his resignation, the removal proceedings are now considered effectively infructuous, they said.

Despite this, sources noted that the inquiry panel continued its work as it was constituted when he was still in office, and its findings remain part of the parliamentary record. It will now be for Parliament to decide on the next course of action after the report is tabled. (Agencies)