Cash row: Justice Yashwant Varma consults lawyers ahead of appearance before probe panel

Delhi High Court Justice Yashwant Varma, from whose residence burnt cash was allegedly found, met a team of lawyers on Wednesday, ahead of his appearance before an in-house inquiry committee. According to sources, the high court judge sought legal opinion from senior advocates Siddharth Aggarwal, Maneka Guruswamy, Arundhati Katju and advocate Tara Narula who visited his Lutyens' Delhi residence.

The three-member in-house committee appointed by the Supreme Court is expected to meet Justice Varma this week.

The committee visited Justice Varma's 30, Tughlak Crescent residence here on Tuesday as it commenced its inquiry into the allegations against him.


Chief Justice Sheel Nagu of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana, Chief Justice G S Sandhawalia of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka High Court Justice Anu Sivaraman were inside Justice Varma's residence for around 30-35 minutes.

The findings of the crucial inquiry will decide the fate of Justice Varma who is facing allegations that "four to five semi-burnt sacks of Indian currency notes" were found at his home following a fire on March 14.

The Supreme Court Collegium had recommended the repatriation of Justice Varma, who has been de-rostered by the Delhi High Court following a directive from Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna, to his parent Allahabad High Court.

On March 22, the CJI constituted the three-member committee to conduct an in-house inquiry into allegations against Justice Varma and decided to upload online the report of Delhi High Court Chief Justice D K Upadhyay in the incident. It included photos and videos of the alleged discovery.

Justice Varma strongly rejected the allegations and said no cash was ever placed in the storeroom of his house either by him or any of his family members.