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New Delhi: The report of the inquiry committee probing charges against former Allahabad high court judge Yashwant Varma, from whose official residence a huge amount of cash was discovered after a fire in March 2025, was tabled in Lok Sabha on Wednesday (August 12). The report finds that the justice, who already resigned in April this year, has failed to explain the discovery of the currency notes on his residential premises.

It says he did not participate in the inquiry proceedings as “expected”, leading to an adverse finding against him. “The least that could have been done by the judge was to enter the witness box and deny the charge, which he did not choose to do but abandoned (withdrew) from further participation in the inquiry…” notes the report.

The report notes that the judge did not display the “candour, transparency and institutional responsibility expected in the circumstances” and instead remained “evasive and unsatisfactory” when tested against independent witnesses.

Ex-justice Varma was a judge of the Delhi high court in whose house large amounts of currency notes were discovered in March 2025. The inquiry committee probing the allegations against him consists of Justice Aravind Kumar, a Supreme Court judge, Justice Shree Chandrashekhar, chief justice of the Bombay high court and B.V. Acharya, a senior advocate in the Karnataka high court.

The proceedings........

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