In a massive twist in the allegations against Delhi High Court Justice Yashwant Varma, the Delhi’s fire services chief has denied reports of finding piles of cash at his residence during a firefighting operation. Moreover, the Supreme Court has clarified that the collegium’s decision to transfer Justice Varma is not linked with the alleged incident, but confirmed that an in-house inquiry has been initiated against the judge.
Earlier it was reported in the media that firefighters accidentally discovered huge amounts of cash at the residence of justice Varma after a fire incident at the house on the eve of Holi. Reports said that justice Varma was not in town when the fire incident happened. His family members alerted the fire brigade and when the fire brigade managed to douse the fire and entered house, they found a huge pile of cash in one of the rooms. The firefighters alerted the police and the cops then alerted the top law enforcement officials, the reports said.
However, now Delhi Fire Services chief Atul Garg has said that firefighters did not find any cash during the operation. “Soon after dousing the flames, we informed police about the fire incident. Thereafter, a team of fire department personnel left the spot. Our firefighters did not find any cash during their firefighting operation,” he reportedly said.
He also called the matter “sensitive” and refrained from commenting further on the issue. He said that someone from the judge’s staff made the call about the fire incident at the Varma’s Lutyens Delhi residence at 11.35 pm on March 14. Two fire tenders were immediately rushed to the spot and the fire in a store room stocked with stationery and domestic articles was doused, he added.
Later, Delhi Fire Chief Atul Garg stated that he had never told any media outlet that firefighters did not find cash at the scene.
When asked why his name was being quoted in the reports, Garg replied, “I don’t know why,” adding that he had already sent a clarification to the media outlets carrying the statement.
At the same time, the Supreme Court today issued a press release denying reports that Collegium recommended the judge’s transfer to the Allahabad High Court due to the alleged incident. The top court said that the collegium has proposed to transfer him as a routine manner, it has not been finalised yet, and the transfer has no links with the alleged discovery of cash at his house. However, the court confirmed an in-house probe over the allegations.
The press release said, “The proposal for transfer of Mr. Justice Yashwant Varma, who is the second senior most Judge in the Delhi High Court and a member of the Collegium, to his parent High Court i.e. the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, where he will be ninth in seniority, is independent and separate from the In-house enquiry procedure. The proposal was examined by the Collegium comprising of the Chief Justice of India and four senior most Judges of the Supreme Court on 20th March 2025, and thereafter letters were written to the consultee Judges of the Supreme Court, the Chief Justices of the High Courts concerned and Mr. Justice Yashwant Varma. Responses received will be examined and, thereupon, the Collegium will pass a resolution.”
On the probe against justice Varma, the press release stated that Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court has commenced the In-house enquiry procedure collecting evidence and information after receiving information about the incident. It stated that the inquire was commenced before the Collegium meeting on 20th March 2025, and the Delhi HC’s Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya will be submitting his report to the CJI Sanjiv Khanna by today.
The apex court stated that the in-house inquiry has been initiated as per Supreme Court judgement in C. Ravichandran Iyer v. Justice A.M. Bhattacharjee case of 1995.
Disclaimer: The report was updated to include the statement of Delhi Fire Chief Atul Garg clarifying that he never made remarks about finding ‘no cash’ at the residence of Justice Verma.
