A report submitted by Delhi High Court Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya into alleged finding of a cash stash at the house of high court judge Justice Yashwant Varma has been uploaded on the Supreme Court website, in an unprecedented move by the top court in the interest of transparency.
The report also includes Justice Varma’s response to the allegation and documents linked to the matter.
Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna kept intact the unblemished legacy of the judiciary by consulting collegium members Justice BR Gavai, Justice Surya Kant, Justice AS Oka, and Justice Vikram Nath on making the documents public, and they all agreed on uploading the document on the Supreme Court website for transparency and to end misinformation being spread about the matter, sources told NDTV.
Justice Varma strongly refuted allegations that a huge pile of cash was found at his house.
“… I was totally shocked to see the contents of the video since that depicted something which was not found on site as I had seen it. It was this which prompted me to observe that this clearly appeared to be a conspiracy to frame and malign me,” Justice Varma said, referring to a video shared by the police chief.
Some portions of the documents including names have been redacted to maintain confidentiality.
Read | Delhi High Court Chief Justice’s Full Report, Documents On Judge Cash Row
In the report submitted to Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, the Delhi High Court Chief Justice said, “… He [Justice Varma] also informed me that at the time of the incident, he was in Bhopal and got the information from his daughter. Justice Verma further told me that at the moment, black burnt material (soot) is lying in the room. I thereafter showed him the photographs and the video on my WhatsApp which were shared with me by the Commissioner of Police. He [Justice Varma] then expressed some apprehension about some conspiracy against him.”
The documents uploaded on the Supreme Court’s website show that on March 21, Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna shared three questions with the Delhi High Court Chief Justice that can be asked to Justice Varma.
The three questions were: how does he account for the presence of money/cash in the room located in his premises? Explain the source of money/cash which was found in the said room. Who is the person who had removed the burnt money/cash from the room in the morning of March 15, 2025?
The Chief Justice of India sought details of the official staff of the high court Registry, the personal security officers and the security guards who were posted at Justice Varma’s house in the last six months. He suggested contacting the mobile service provider(s) for giving call record details of the official or other mobile phone number(s) of Justice Varma for the last six months.
“Justice Yashwant Varma may be requested to not dispose of his mobile phone(s) or delete or modify any conversation, messages or data from his mobile phone(s). The reply submitted by Justice Yashwant Varma, along with your comments, may be furnished to me immediately for further action,” Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna said in a written communication to the Delhi High Court Chief Justice.
Delhi High Court Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya asked these three and other questions to Justice Varma, with a request to respond by Saturday midnight since “the reported incident is very disturbing”.
Justice Yashwant Varma’s Response
Justice Varma said the fire broke out in the storeroom near the staff quarters of his official residence on the intervening night of 14-15 March.
“This room was generally utilised by all and sundry to store articles such as unused furniture, bottles, crockery, mattresses, used carpets, old speakers, garden implements as well as CPWD material. This room is unlocked and accessible both from the official front gate as well as the backdoor of the staff quarters. It is disconnected from the main residence and is surely not a room in my house as has been portrayed and suggested in the article which appeared in the Times of India and certain other news reports. On that date, my wife and I were not in Delhi and travelling in Madhya Pradesh and it was only my daughter and aged mother who were at home. I returned to Delhi only on the evening of 15 March from Bhopal travelling on an IndiGo flight with my wife,” Justice Varma said.
“We have, since that fateful night, been continuously trying to find an explanation for the allegations which are being levelled and with us being required to prove an allegation which is premised on cash being discovered and the same presumed to belong to me or my family members. That presumption requires me to not only furnish an explanation with respect to the existence of an article allegedly present in a commonly used outhouse and general storeroom which was freely accessible but also requires me to ‘account’ for the same.
“That takes me to the video clip which has been shared with me. Assuming without admitting that the video was taken immediately at the time of the incident at the site, none of it appears to have been recovered or seized. The second aspect which I need to underscore is that none of the staff was shown any remnants of cash or currency that may have been present on site. I have made my own enquiries from the staff present who have also stated that there was no ‘removal’ of currency which was allegedly found at the site or removed from the premises. The only thing which was cleared was debris and what they considered to be salvageable. That is still present in the house and can be seen kept apart in one part of the residence.
“What baffles me is the complete absence of any sacks of allegedly burnt currency which were ever recovered or seized. We categorically assert that neither my daughter, PS [private secretary] nor household staff were shown these so-called sacks of burnt currency. I stand by my consistent position that when they accessed the storeroom, there was no currency, burnt or otherwise, which could be seen. I request you to bear in mind that the storeroom is removed from my residence and is used as a general dump room for disused articles and other sundry household articles. I wonder who would countenance an allegation that currency would be kept in a storeroom in a corner of the house and which is freely accessible from amongst others the back wicker gate also.
“I would beseech you to also bear in consideration that no currency was recovered from the premises that we actually occupy and use as a family. That part of the premises is as indicated above removed from the living quarters. It is in the aforesaid background that I urge you to absolve me of these unfounded and baseless allegations. In the life of a judge, nothing matters more than reputation and character. That has been severely tarnished and irreparably damaged. The baseless allegations that have been levelled against me have proceeded on mere innuendos and an unproven assumption that the cash allegedly seen and found belonged to me,” Justice Varma said in his response.
Read the full response here.
Senior lawyer Harish Salve, who calls himself a “trenchant critic” of the collegium system, told NDTV on Friday it is “not equipped” to deal with cases like the alleged recovery of a huge pile of cash at the home of the Delhi High Court judge.
Mr Salve alleged the Delhi fire chief has said there was no recovery of cash from the judge’s bungalow, giving rise to an “odd and murky” situation.
The Delhi High Court website shows Justice Varma enrolled as an advocate in August 1992. He was appointed additional judge of the Allahabad High Court in October 2014. He took oath as a permanent judge of the Allahabad High Court in February 2016, before being appointed a judge of the Delhi High Court in October 2021.
He is currently heading a division bench, dealing with cases of sales tax, goods and services tax, company appeals, etc.
The process to transfer Justice Varma to the Allahabad High Court was also unrelated to the inquiry into the alleged cash stash row, the Supreme Court said on Friday. It said the in-house investigation was being done as per the procedure prescribed by the Supreme Court, and the transfer had nothing to do with the investigation. The Supreme Court flagged “misinformation and rumours” as the reasons why Justice Varma’s transfer to Allahabad High Court was linked to the alleged cash recovery.
