The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended the repatriation of Justice Yashwant Varma to the Allahabad High Court amidst an ongoing inquiry into a cash haul at his Delhi residence.
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00:00I now want to shift focus to the other big story we're tracking here in India today
00:04and that's the heat mounting on Justice Yashwant Verma of the Delhi High Court
00:09after that cash haul at his official residence in the National Capital. The
00:15images that you see on the left of your screen, there was a fire on the 14th of
00:19March at his residence. That's the storeroom and that is where it is
00:24claimed that a large stash of cash was found partially burnt. Those are videos
00:31that were taken by the first responders from the Delhi Police and the Delhi Fire
00:36Service. Now a three-member inquiry panel of judges, they will be probing this
00:42unaccounted cash or prima facie the irregularity in the recovery. This after
00:49the Supreme Court uploaded reports about what was found in the initial fact
00:55finding mission carried out by the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court. Now
01:00Justice Verma has since been derostered by the High Court and all judicial work
01:05has been withdrawn from him. A three-member High Court panel will probe
01:10the unaccounted cash haul recovery. The Justice, meanwhile Justice Verma has been
01:16barred from deleting, he's been directed not to delete anything from his mobile
01:22phone whether it's calls or messages or any communication that took place on
01:29his phone in the past six months. Justice Verma has denied these allegations. He's
01:34denied the cash belonged either to him or any member of his family. Justice
01:39Verma said that the storeroom from where those half-burnt wads of cash were
01:44recovered, he said he wasn't aware of it, nothing was shown to him. This was
01:48unlocked at all times and accessible to anybody including the house staff and
01:53those who came from outside like the Central Public Works Department workers.
01:57But there are multiple contradictory statements. Authorities say the money was
02:02found in a locked storeroom, the cash was in sacks. Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep
02:09Dhankar, Vice President of India met the leader of the house Jagat Prakash Nadda
02:13and Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge not just to discuss the cash
02:17seizure but multiple other issues and the road ahead.
02:43It seemed to be very very strange. Judges don't have a lot of
03:12privacy in their houses. Not only do they have their own staff, the CPWD also
03:16as the inquiry report says, the CPWD has access to all of these buildings as well
03:22as their security people. Significantly, when you look at corruption, when you
03:26look at Nirav Modi, when you look at Lalit Modi, when you look at any of this,
03:29is cash recovered? It's not common. You'll either set up a shell company,
03:35send it to the Cayman Islands or something similar, especially if you have
03:39legal training. So therefore, I think that there are many questions to be asked.
04:09There are of course multiple discrepancies in what Justice Verma has
04:29said and what the initial investigation seem to have revealed. For example, there
04:35is one aspect. Let's just focus on that. The Honourable Justice has said the cash
04:40didn't belong to me and that the storeroom was unlocked and accessible to
04:43all. No cash was seized on the spot. The daughter and the secretary alerted the
04:50fire services. So this is what Justice Verma is believed to have told the
04:55Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court when they met in the guest house of the
04:59Delhi High Court. Now, what the authorities are claiming? Half burnt wads of cash
05:04were recovered in the storeroom. Apparently, the 70th battalion of the
05:09Central Reserve Police Force, the Foxtrot company that was deployed to
05:14protect Justice Verma or elements of the 70th company, 70th battalion's Foxtrot
05:19company, they said that the storeroom was always kept locked. So that's one
05:23discrepancy. The cash was found or burnt cash was found inside sacks in that
05:28storeroom. No call was made to the fire service from the house. The house
05:36we are told a call was made to the to the personal secretary and it was the
05:40personal secretary who then called the PCR and it's the PCR that informed the
05:45fire service. That is what we are being told. There's breaking news that's coming
05:50in. The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended the repatriation of Justice
05:56Yashwant Verma to the Allahabad High Court. This comes amidst protests from
06:02the Allahabad High Court Bar Association against the recommendation of the
06:07Collegium against the repatriation of Justice Yashwant Verma to the Allahabad
06:12High Court. The Allahabad High Court Bar Association had actually sought
06:17impeachment proceedings be initiated against Justice Verma. In fact, that
06:22letter from the Bar Association of the Allahabad High Court very clearly said
06:28are we a dustbin? When the Allahabad High Court Bar Association president joined
06:33me on India Today, his point was if Justice Verma is not fit to carry out
06:39duties in Delhi according to the Supreme Court Collegium, then why is it that he's
06:44fit to carry out duties in Allahabad? Why are we being treated like a dustbin was
06:50the question he posed not just in that letter but also in that conversation and
06:54I quickly want to cut across to India Today's legal editor Nalini Sharma
06:58joining me for more on this. So Nalini, this was, did we get this wrong initially
07:04or was this Kabhi Haan, Kabhi Naan or is this completely unlinked? Initially it
07:08was said that the Collegium had recommended he be repatriated to the
07:12Allahabad High Court. Then it was said that it's not linked to this case and
07:15now we are breaking that he is being repatriated to the Allahabad High Court.
07:20Well Gaurav, we can confirm that there were two separate meetings of the
07:25Collegium members that had happened where this issue regarding Justice Verma
07:28was discussed. The first meeting was on the 20th of March where his issue of
07:33transfer or the repatriation back to the Allahabad High Court was discussed after
07:37which there was source-based information that the Collegium has decided to go
07:41ahead with it but there was no official resolution that was issued by the
07:44Collegium in that regard. The Collegium had also clarified that his transfer is
07:49separate from the inquiry that's going on and one does not have anything to do
07:53with the other but it's difficult to believe that considering that it's all
07:57happening at the same time. The second meeting happened today on the 24th of
08:01March after which the Collegium has officially issued its resolution. It has
08:05said that Justice Verma will be repatriated back to the Allahabad High
08:09Court which is his parent High Court. Considering that judicial work has
08:13already been withdrawn from him in the Delhi High Court, there is a likelihood
08:16that even if he is sent back to the Allahabad High Court, he will not
08:19immediately be granted any judicial work at least till the time when the
08:24three-member inquiry panel is still conducting its fact-finding inquiry and
08:28determining what were the events of the night of 14th of March when the fire had
08:33happened in Justice Verma's residence. Another important aspect that needs to
08:37be pointed out over here is that the Collegium so far has only recommended
08:41his name. Yes, the resolution has been issued but it's only a recommendation. It
08:45will now go to the central government and the central government will take the
08:48final call on whether or not Justice Verma should in fact be sent back to the
08:53Allahabad High Court. In case the central government is not an agreement, they can
08:56send the file back to the Collegium and the Collegium then has a decision to
09:00whether re-treat their recommendation or decide on some other mode of action. So,
09:07it remains to be seen now what happens with the central government considering
09:10the ball is in their court. Will they expedite the repatriation back to the
09:14Allahabad High Court or will they sit on the file for now at least till the time
09:17that the inquiry is going on. So, lots to expect in the coming few days. You know
09:21Nalini, there are multiple questions that are being raised virtually every day
09:25ever since the 14th of March incident of which we got to know only after the
09:3220th of March on transparency or whether the Collegium system, their decision
09:38making is very opaque, whether there needs to be more accountability and do
09:43we know the reason why is he being transferred to Allahabad High Court? Why
09:49is it that when no work is being given to him in Delhi, he should be sent to
09:53Allahabad? Is it to ensure that there's no interference in any of the
09:57investigations in Delhi or whether he gets work in Allahabad or doesn't get
10:01work in Allahabad? Is there clarity on that aspect? Well Gaurav, it's best not to
10:07speculate at this point and considering that the Collegium has made a clear
10:12statement saying that the transfer has nothing to do with the ongoing inquiry
10:15so that is what we are going to take on record and that's what we are going to
10:19stick with at this point but at the same time it's important to point out that
10:22considering the kind of allegations that have been leveled against Justice Varma
10:27it was crucial that judicial work was taken away from him on an
10:32immediate basis keeping in mind that an inquiry panel has been set up already
10:36and the inquiry panel has still not come up with its report so it's neither here
10:41nor there till the time the inquiry panel does not give the report to the
10:44Chief Justice of India we won't know the facts of what happened on the 14th of
10:49March until the inquiry is complete and remember it's only a fact-finding
10:53inquiry so there will be no investigation that will be done by the
10:56judges but the judges will formulate what was the chain of events what were
11:00the call data records of Justice Yashwant Varma on the 14th night who all
11:04did he speak to at what time did he get to know about the fire who all did he
11:08call after the fire broke it out all of these are very crucial pieces of facts
11:12that need to be put together to determine exactly what is it that had
11:16gone down on the night of the 14th of March because remember there are also
11:20contradictory statements by the authorities themselves including the
11:24Delhi Fire Services Chief who had first said that there was no cash recovered
11:27and then had taken a u-turn on his own statement so all of those things will be
11:31analyzed by the three-member panel that has been set up by the Chief Justice of
11:35India they will submit a report before CGI Khanna and then it remains to be
11:39seen what is the action taken by CGI Khanna there are a few possibilities the
11:44Collegium can ask Justice Yashwant Varma to step down and given his
11:48resignation as a High Court judge in case they find that there is in fact any
11:53credible evidence behind all the allegations that are against him and in
11:59case of course Justice Varma decides not to resign on his own then the process of
12:03impeachment can happen which is going to be very interesting to watch out
12:06because remember in the history of India Gaurav not a single judge has been
12:10impeached yet there have been several proposals but none of the proposals have
12:14fully gone through so what remains to be seen and the question on everybody's
12:17mind today is will Justice Yashwant Varma in case the evidence is found
12:21against him will he be the first Indian judge to actually be impeached
12:25we'll be tracking that story very very closely Nalini for the moment many
12:29thanks for joining me