New Delhi:
A plea in the Supreme Court has sought a direction to Delhi Police to lodge an FIR over the alleged discovery of semi-burnt stash of cash from the official residence of Delhi High Court judge Yashwant Varma.
The plea also challenges the 1991 judgement in the K Veeraswami case in which the top court ruled that no criminal proceedings could be initiated against a judge of the high court or the top court without the prior nod of the Chief Justice of India.
The alleged cash discovery happened following a fire at Justice Varma’s Lutyens Delhi residence at around 11.35 pm on March 14, prompting the fire officials to rush to the spot and douse it.
Consequently, the top court collegium headed by CJI Sanjiv Khanna and the Delhi High Court issued a series of directives, including the withdrawal of judicial work from Justice Varma on Monday.
The CJI constituted an in-house committee to conduct an inquiry and asked Delhi HC Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya not to assign any judicial work to Justice Varma. On Monday, Justice Varma was de-rostered till further orders.
The plea, filed by advocate Mathews J Nedumpara and three others on March 23, also said the immunity to judges violated the constitutional principle of equality before the law and raised concerns about judicial accountability and the rule of law.
“To declare that the incident of recovery of huge sums …, from the official residence of Justice Yashwant Varma, by the fire force/police when their services for sought to douse fire, constitute a cognisable offence punishable under various provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and that the police is duty bound to register an FIR…,” the plea said.
The plea challenged the 1991 observation that “no criminal case shall be registered against a judge of a High court or Supreme Court without the prior permission of the CJI” and argued they were “per incuriam” (lack of care) and “sub silentio” (in silence)”.
“The said observation of the court is one rendered per incuriam, in ignorance of law and sub silentio, without noticing that the police is under a statutory duty to register an FIR when it receives information of a cognisable offence, and the said direction of the court is nothing short of restraining the police from discharging their statutory duty,” the plea said.
The direction, the plea said, created a special class of privileged men and women, immune from the penal laws of the land.
“Per incuriam” refers to a court decision made in ignorance or forgetfulness of a relevant statutory provision whereas “sub silentio” refers to a situation where a court makes a decision without explicitly stating or considering a particular point of law.
The plea said, “Equality before law and equal protection of law is the core of our constitution. All are equal before law and the criminal laws apply equally to all, irrespective of one’s status, position, etc. The only exception, nay immunity, in our constitutional scheme is extended to the President and the Governors….” In Justice Varma’s case no FIR has been filed, it claimed.
“To declare that the 3-member committee constituted by the collegium has no jurisdiction to conduct an investigation into the incident that occurred on March 14, 2025, at the official resident of Justice Yashwant Varma where heaps of currency notes were by chance recovered in a fire constituting various cognisable under the BNS, and that the resolution of the collegium investing the committee the power to conduct such an investigation is one rendered void ab initio inasmuch as the collegium cannot confer jurisdiction upon itself to order so where Parliament or the Constitution has conferred none,” it said.
It sought a direction to Delhi Police to register an FIR and prohibit others from interfering with the sovereign policing function of the state.
The plea also sought a direction to the Centre to take effective and meaningful action for curbing corruption across all levels of judiciary, including the enactment of the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, 2010 which lapsed.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
