A fire and burnt piles of cash have created a lot of stir in Delhi and beyond. Reports have been filed and replies sought. The Supreme Court has formed an inquiry panel. Political leaders are once again debating which process is better for appointment of judges.
It all started around midnight on March 14, when a fire was reported from the official residence of Delhi High Court judge Yashwant Varma. At the time, the judge was in Bhopal for Holi celebrations. In a rare public disclosure, the Supreme Court uploaded a video and photographs of a gutted room with piles of half or fully burnt currency notes. It also set up a three-member inquiry committee to look into the matter.
Justice Varma, meanwhile, said the video “appeared to be a conspiracy to frame and malign me”.
The Supreme Court said that Justice Varma wouldn’t be assigned “any judicial work” for the time being. The SC collegium also proposed “repatriating” him to his home court, the Allahabad High Court. Soon after, the Allahabad High Court Bar Association went on strike over the proposed transfer, saying it was not a “trash bin”. It also demanded Justice Varma’s impeachment.
Three key questions come to the fore. First, where did the fire break out? Second, where is the burnt cash now? Third, who called the fire department?
A look at official reports answers all these questions.
The fire location
It was a storeroom or outhouse that caught fire around 11.30 pm on March 14. It was located at a distance from the main residence but within Varma’s official premises. This storeroom is close to the guard room used by CRPF personnel.
Justice Varma claimed that the storeroom was accessible to helpers, gardeners and sometimes to PWD officials. It was used to store discarded household items as would be the case with any other such storeroom.
He also said the entry to the storeroom was from the front and the back, and that it was kept unlocked. “The very idea or suggestion that this cash was kept or stored by us is totally preposterous,” he insisted.
Then who put the cash in the storeroom? So far, no one knows.
The first call
The first call in the wake of the fire was made by Justice Varma’s private secretary to the Delhi police control room. The private secretary was informed of the fire by one of the workers.
Justice Varma said his daughter also made calls to the fire department. At the time, the judge and his wife were in Bhopal for Holi vacation. Two of his family members – daughter and mother – were at the Delhi house. Justice Varma’s daughter informed her father about the fire, following which he returned to Delhi the very next day.
If the Varma family or his private secretary knew about the cash, why would they make calls to the PCR or the fire department? Or was it too big a fire to hide from security personnel deployed at the house?
There are no clear answers.
Where is the cash?
The video shows stacks of burnt currency notes. But where has all that cash disappeared?
In a letter to Delhi High Court Chief Justice DK Upadhyay, Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna said Justice Varma must be asked about who removed the burnt currency notes from the room on March 15 morning.
In his reply, Justice Varma said: “Assuming, without admitting, that the video was taken immediately at the time of the incident at the site, none of it appears to have been recovered or seized. The second aspect which I need to underscore is that none of the staff was shown any remnants of cash or currency that may have been present on site.”
But the Delhi police have claimed that after the fire, four to five burnt sacks of Indian currency notes were found.
There is also confusion about the value of the cash recovered, but official reports are silent on this. Economic Times has reported a discovery of Rs 15 crore, while Times Now’s Navika Kumar went a step further claiming that Rs 45-Rs 50 crore were recovered.
How are judges appointed?
Muddling the controversy is Rajya Sabha chairman and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, who said things would have been different had the Supreme Court not struck down the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act.
The law was passed by Parliament in 2014 and proposed that judges be appointed by a six-member body. This body would include two most senior Supreme Court judges, the union law minister, and two “eminent” persons. These eminent persons were to be chosen by a panel comprising the Prime Minister, Chief Justice of India and the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
At present, judges are appointed by five most senior judges of the Supreme Court.
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