Cash discovery row: SC agrees to hear Justice Varma's plea against constitution of LS probe panel; lawyer flags 'procedural lapse'

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear a plea by Allahabad high court's Justice Yashwant Varma challenging the constitution of an inquiry committee set up by the Lok Sabha Speaker to probe corruption charges against him.A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Augustine George Masih issued notices to the Lok Sabha Speaker’s office and the secretaries-general of both Houses of Parliament, seeking their responses after senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Justice Varma, flagged a "procedural lapse" in the constitution of the Lok Sabha inquiry panel. Rohatgi submitted that the introduction of a motion in both Houses of Parliament to remove a judge requires the inquiry panel to be formed jointly by the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, and cannot be constituted unilaterally by the Lok Sabha Speaker."Where the notices of the motion are 'given' to the Houses on the same date, no committee will be constituted, unless the motion is being admitted in both Houses. And where such motion is admitted in both Houses, the committee shall be constituted jointly by the Lok Sabha Speaker and the Rajya Sabha Chairman," PTI quoted Rohatgi as saying.In his plea, Justice Varma has also sought that the admission of the Lok Sabha motion to remove him be declared "contrary to law."The matter has been posted for the next hearing on January 7.On March 14, large sums of currency were found at Justice Varma’s official residence in Delhi, where he was then serving as a high court judge. He was later transferred to the Allahabad high court in Uttar Pradesh. Following the discovery, then-Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna initiated an in-house probe into the allegations and set up a three-member panel, which submitted its report on May 4. The panel found Justice Varma guilty of misconduct.After receiving the report, the then-CJI asked Justice Varma to resign or face impeachment proceedings. Following the judge’s refusal to resign, the report was forwarded to President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.On August 7, the Supreme Court dismissed Justice Varma's plea seeking to invalidate the in-house inquiry report. On August 12, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla constituted a separate three-member committee to probe the charges against the judge.