SC Agrees to Hear Plea Seeking FIR Against Justice Varma In Cash Row Tomorrow

The Supreme Court is slated to listen to on Wednesday a plea in the hunt for prison prosecution of Justice Yashwant Varma, who’s embroiled in an argument surrounding the alleged discovery of an enormous pile of burnt coins within the storeroom connected to his bungalow within the nationwide capital after the hearth brigade had long past there to douse a blaze on March 14. 

As in keeping with the causelist printed at the web page of the apex courtroom, a bench of Justices Abhay S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan will listen the topic on May 21. 

On Monday, a bench headed by means of Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai informed suggest Mathews J. Nedumpara, the lead petitioner-in-person, that the apex courtroom might soak up the plea for listening to on May 20. 

After Nedumpara submitted that he could be unavailable on Tuesday, the CJI Gavai-led Bench agreed to checklist the topic on May 21. 

Last week, declining to offer an out-of-turn listening to, the CJI Gavai-led Bench informed Nedumpara to practice the “mentioning procedure”, which calls for sending an e mail to the apex courtroom registry for pressing record of the petition. 

If Justice Varma has dedicated the offence of collecting wealth thru corrupt approach, an impeachment on its own won’t suffice, mentioned the petition, not easy his prison prosecution. 

“What has happened is a grave crime against public justice. When it is a judge, the defender of justice who is himself the accused or culprit, then it is no ordinary offence, the gravity is far greater, and so must be the punishment. [I]t is imperative that criminal law is set into motion, the matter is thoroughly investigated, and most importantly, ascertain who were bribe givers/beneficiaries and what was the cause/judgment in which justice was purchased,” mentioned the petition. 

“It was indisputable that the huge volumes of money that were burned and partly burned and clandestinely removed were nothing but bribe/corruption — a crime punishable under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Prevention of Corruption Act. There was no official explanation as to why no FIR was registered and why the criminal law was not set into motion, which would have meant the seizure of the currency notes securing the crime location, the arrest of suspects, etc.,” added the plea. 

In the final week of March, a bench of Justices Oka and Bhuyan disposed of some other plea filed by means of the similar petitioners in the hunt for course to the Delhi Police to sign up an FIR and motive an efficient and significant investigation into the cash-discovery allegations.

“The ‘in-house’ inquiry is ongoing. If the report finds something wrong, an FIR could be directed, or the matter could be referred to the Parliament. Today is not the time to consider (the registration of FIR),” the bench had remarked then. 

Questioning the non-registration of an FIR on March 14 itself, the day when unaccounted coins was once reportedly discovered, the petition mentioned the prolong at the a part of the government involved to make to be had to the general public the digital data results in the impossible to resist inference that what was once happening was once an try at a cover-up. 

Following the alleged coins discovery, which despatched shockwaves around the judicial corridors, the then CJI Sanjiv Khanna had constituted a 3-member committee to behavior an inquiry towards Justice Varma. Amid the in-house probe, Justice Varma was once transferred from the Delhi High Court to the Allahabad High Court. The Supreme Court Collegium had previous advisable that the Centre repatriate Justice Varma to the Allahabad High Court. 

Earlier, this month, then CJI Khanna had forwarded to the President and the Prime Minister the file of the highest court-appointed in-house enquiry panel. 

“Chief Justice of India, in terms of the In-House Procedure, has written to Hon’ble the President of  India and Hon’ble the Prime Minister of India enclosing therewith copy of the 3-Member Committee report dated 03.05.2025 along with the letter/response dated 06.05.2025 received from Mr Justice Yashwant Varma,” mentioned a press commentary launched by means of the apex courtroom on May 8.