SC Flags Flaw in Bid to Remove Justice Varma Amid Delhi Cash Probe
SC Flags Flaw in Bid to Remove Justice Varma Amid Delhi Cash Probe
The Supreme Court flags a major procedural flaw in Parliament's bid to remove Justice Yashwant Varma, as a Delhi cash-recovery case fuels a high-stakes legal battle.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday flagged a major procedural flaw in Parliament's bid to remove Justice Yashwant Varma of the Allahabad High Court, who is at the center of a controversy following the recovery of cash from his official residence in Delhi.
Justice Varma, who identified himself as “X” in the petition filed through advocate Vaibhav Niti last week, argued that the proviso to section 3(2) of the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968 requires that when the motion for removal is moved simultaneously before both Houses of Parliament, no committee can be constituted till the motion is admitted in both Houses. In the present case, the motion was moved July 21. However, the Speaker admitted the motion on August 12 and formed a committee while the motion in the Rajya Sabha is still pending.
Our Parliament has several legal experts. Then how does this happen? Did the members of Parliament not notice that this cannot be done,” observed a bench of justices Dipankar Datta and Augustine George Masih, as it issued notice on the judge’s petition and posted the matter for further hearing on January 7. The court sought responses from the office of the Lok Sabha Speaker and the secretary generals of the two Houses of Parliament on the legal challenge presented by justice Varma.
The three-member inquiry committee, constituted by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on August 12, is moving ahead under the Judges Inquiry Act framework. The committee operates within the constitutional framework that governs how a sitting judge may be removed.
The matter unfolds against the backdrop of cash recovered from Varma's Delhi residence, a development that has kept the judiciary and Parliament in a high-stakes confrontation over due process.
