Cash row
Supreme Court makes report on judge's cash row public; shares images, videos
New Delhi/IBNS: In an unprecedented move taken in the interest of maintaining transparency, the Supreme Court has made public a report submitted by Delhi High Court Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya into an alleged recovery of a huge pile of cash stashed at the residence of High Court Judge Justice Yashwant Varma.
The report, uploaded on the apex court's website, also includes Justice Varma's response to the allegation and documents linked to the matter.
SC makes public the video of gutted store room of Justice Yashwant Varma where allegedly bundles of cash were found post the fire incident.
— Arvind Gunasekar (@arvindgunasekar) March 22, 2025
SC has instituted an in-house probe in the matter, Justice Varma has called it as “conspiracy” against him. pic.twitter.com/AAAkqabVe6
Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna reportedly justified the judiciary's "unblemished legacy" by consulting collegium members Justice BR Gavai, Justice Surya Kant, Justice AS Oka, and Justice Vikram Nath on making the documents public.
Sources told NDTV that they all agreed on uploading the document on the Supreme Court website for transparency and to end misinformation being spread about the matter.
Justice Varma refuted allegations that a huge pile of cash was recovered at his house.
"... I was totally shocked to see the contents of the video since it depicted something which was not found on site as I had seen it. It was this which prompted me to observe that this clearly appeared to be a conspiracy to frame and malign me," Justice Varma said, referring to a video shared by the police chief.
In the report submitted to Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, the Delhi High Court Chief Justice said, "... He [Justice Varma] also informed me that at the time of the incident, he was in Bhopal and got the information from his daughter. Justice Verma further told me that at the moment, black burnt material (soot) is lying in the room."
"I thereafter showed him the photographs and the video on my WhatsApp which were shared with me by the Commissioner of Police. He [Justice Varma] then expressed some apprehension about some conspiracy against him," it said.
The Chief Justice of India sought details of the official staff of the high court Registry, the personal security officers, and the security guards who were posted at Justice Varma's house in the last six months.
He suggested contacting the mobile service provider(s) to give call record details of the official or other mobile phone number(s) of Justice Varma for the last six months.
"Justice Yashwant Varma may be requested to not dispose of his mobile phone(s) or delete or modify any conversation, messages or data from his mobile phone(s). The reply submitted by Justice Yashwant Varma, along with your comments, may be furnished to me immediately for further action," Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna said in a written communication to the Delhi High Court Chief Justice.
What happened at Justice Varma's house?
A fire at Justice Varma's residential bungalow led to the recovery of a huge pile of unaccounted cash, prompting the Supreme Court collegium to transfer from the Delhi High Court to the Allahabad HC.
Justice Varma was out of town when a fire broke out at his residence last week. Justice Varma's family members had called the fire brigade.
But when the firefighters doused the fire, a huge pile of cash was discovered inside a room.
Police were called by the firefighters.
The accidental discovery, which left the judiciary red-faced, led Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna to call an immediate collegium meeting.
Justice Varma is yet to respond to the discovery of cash at his residence.
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