Supreme Court Publishes Video & Pictures On Cash At Justice Yashwant Varma's Premises; Makes Report Of Delhi HC CJ Public
Gursimran Kaur Bakshi
22 March 2025 6:32 PM
In an unprecedented move, the Supreme Court on Saturday uploaded on its website the reports and documents, including photos and video, with respect to the allegations of the discovery of unaccounted currencies at the outhouse in the residential premises of Justice Yashwant Varma, sitting judge of the Delhi High Court.The inquiry report of the Delhi High Court Chief Justice and the response...
In an unprecedented move, the Supreme Court on Saturday uploaded on its website the reports and documents, including photos and video, with respect to the allegations of the discovery of unaccounted currencies at the outhouse in the residential premises of Justice Yashwant Varma, sitting judge of the Delhi High Court.
The inquiry report of the Delhi High Court Chief Justice and the response of Justice Varma have been made public.
Significantly, the Supreme Court also publicised the videos and photographs shared by the Delhi Police regarding the firefighting operation in Justice Varma's residence on March 14, when he was not present in his home.
The video appended to the report clearly shows sacks containing cash currencies, some of which are burnt. The video can be seen here.
Report submitted by Delhi HC CJ Upadhyay
The report submitted by the Chief Justice states that the incident happened on March 14 in a storeroom where access to any person other than those residing in the official bungalow of Justice Varma is not there. Chief Justice Upadhyay was informed by the Commissioner of Police Delhi in the evening around 4:50 pm on March 15 about the fire which happened at Justice Varma's bungalow on March 14 at 11.30 PM. Thereafter, the Chief Justice instructed the Registrar-cum-Secretary to visit the spot of the incident in person and prepare a report. The Registrar visited the spot, after informing the PS to Justice Varma. Justice Varma was also there
Justice Upadhyay learnt from the Delhi Police Commissioner that the PCR call regarding the fire was made by the Personal Secretary to Justice Varma after the PS was told by Justice Varma's servants about the fire.
Justice Upadhyay after apprising about the incident to CJI on March 16, contacted Justice Varma the next day. Justice Varma responded by stating that the room was accessible to the servants, gardeners and sometimes even the CPWD personnel. When Chief Justice showed him the Whatsapp pictures sent by the Commissioner of Police, Justice Varma expressed some "apprehension about some conspiracy against him".
The Commissioner of Police in his report dated 16.3.2025 has reported that as per the guard posted at the residence of Justice Yashwant Varma, the debris and other partially burnt articles were removed from the room where the fire had broken out in the morning of 15.3.2025.
Chief Justice Upadhyay stated in his report to the Chief Justice of India that the matter required deeper probe. "The enquiry conducted by me, prima facie, does not reveal possibility of entry or access to the room by any person other than those residing in the bungalow, the servants, the gardeners and CPWD personnels, if any. Accordingly, I am of the prima facie opinion that the entire matter warrants a deeper probe," CJ Upadhyay said.
On receiving the report, CJI Sanjiv Khanna on March 21 asked Chief Justice Upadhyay to seek a response from Justice Varma on the presence of "unaccounted cash" the "source" of the money and the person who removed the "burnt cash" on the morning of March 15. Additionally, Justice Varma was asked not to dispose of his phone or to delete any any mobile number, or message or data from his mobile phone.
Justice Varma denies allegations
The Supreme Court also published the response given by Justice Varma.
He denied the allegations including that the room where the fire broke was a room in his official residence. As per his response, it is a storeroom that is disconnected from the main residence contrary to what is projected by TOI's report. He has also unequivocally denied any cash ever being placed in the storeroom.
"I state unequivocally that no cash was ever placed in that storeroom either by me or any of my family members and strongly denounce the suggestion that the alleged cash belonged to us. The very idea or suggestion that this cash was kept or stored by us is totally preposterous. The suggestion that one would store cash in an open, freely accessible and commonly used storeroom near the staff quarters or in an outhouse verges on the incredible and incredulous. It is a room which is completely disassociated from my living areas and a boundary wall demarcates my living area from that outhouse. I only wish that the media had conducted some enquiry before I came to be indicted and defamed in the press," Justice Varma has said in his response.
Justice Varma said that when the fire broke out, he and his wife were not there at the home, and only his daughter and aged mother were there. He said that this room was generally utilised by all and sundry to store articles such as unused furniture, bottles, crockery, mattresses, used carpets, old speakers, garden implements as well as CPWD material. This room is unlocked and accessible both from the official front gate as well as the backdoor of the staff quarters.
Justice Varma raised suspicions about the alleged cash currencies being absent on the morning of March 15. He pointed out that even when the PS of the Chief Justice visited the spot on March 15, no cash was found.
He stated that this was part of a conspiracy to frame him. He pointed out that certain unfounded allegations were circulated against him in social media in December 2024 as well.
"At the cost of repetition, I unequivocally state that neither I nor any of my family members had stored or kept any cash or currency in that storeroom at any point of time. Our cash withdrawals, made from time to time, are all documented and always through regular banking channels, the use of UPI applications and cards. Insofar as the allegation of the recovery of cash, I once again make it clear that no one from my house ever reported seeing any currency in burnt form in the room. In fact, this gets further corroborated from there being no cash or currency which we saw when the site was restored to us after the fire personnel and the police had left the scene quite apart from we being not apprised of any recovery or seizure which was made on the spot. This may also be viewed in light of the statement of the Chief of the Fire Service which I have gathered from news reports."
After examining the report of the Delhi HC CJ and the response of Justice Varma, CJI Sanjiv Khanna constituted a three-member committee to conduct in-house inquiry into the matter.
The members of the Committee are - Justice Sheel Nagu, Chief Justice of the Punjab & Haryana High Court; Justice GS Sandhawalia, Chief Justice of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh; and Justice Anu Sivaraman, Judge of the High Court of Karnataka.
Chief Justice of Delhi High Court has also been asked not to assign any judicial work to Justice Yashwant Varma.
Click here to read the SC press release along with the inquiry report and response of Justice Varma