- By Talibuddin Khan
- Thu, 27 Mar 2025 04:21 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna met the chiefs of six bar associations on Thursday to discuss the proposed transfer of Delhi High Court's Justice Yashwant Varma to the Allahabad High Court. Following the meet, Allahabad High Court Bar Association head Anil Tiwari said that the CJI has assured that their demand of withdrawal of Justice Yashwant Varma's transfer will be considered by the collegium.
The representatives of six bar associations of different high courts including Allahabad, Gujarat, Kerala, Jabalpur, Karnataka and Lucknow met the CJI and other collegium members -- Justices BR Gavai, Surya Kant, Abhay S Oka and Vikram Nath -- in the afternoon. During the meeting, both parties deliberated upon the memorandum of the bar bodies.
Anil Tiwari further said that the Allahabad High Court bar body would reconsider whether or not to continue with the indefinite strike. The Allahabad High Court Bar Association has been on an indefinite strike since March 25 to protest the proposed repatriation of Justice Varma to his parent high court.
The Bar Association members also pointed out the non-registration FIR in the incident and flagged the alleged tampering of the evidence at Justice Varma's official residence where burnt wads of cash were purportedly discovered on March 14 during a fire incident.
In a memorandum, the bar bodies appreciated the steps taken by the CJI to embrace transparency and to make public the report of the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court and other materials on the apex court website. "The bar associations request the Chief Justice and the collegium to withdraw transfer of Justice Yashwant Varma and to withdraw all administrative work in addition to the judicial work which is already withdrawn," the memorandum said.
Urging the CJI to set the criminal law in motion in the matter, the memorandum claimed as per the report of the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, somebody had removed the articles from Justice Varma's residence a day after the fire incident. "In these kinds of crimes, there would be involvement of others and non-registration (of an FIR) would adversely affect their prosecution," it said.
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 officers to rush to the spot. In the wake of the controversy, the apex court collegium recommended the repatriation of Justice Varma, from whom work was withdrawn by the Delhi High Court following a directive from the CJI to his parent Allahabad High Court.
On March 22, the CJI constituted the three-member committee to conduct an in-house inquiry into allegations and decided to upload the inquiry report of Chief Justice D K Upadhyay of the Delhi High Court in the incident. Justice Varma has denounced the allegations and said no cash was ever placed in the storeroom either by him or any of his family members.
(With PTI Inputs)