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The government is set to move an impeachment motion against Allahabad high court’s Justice Yashwant Varma in Parliament and will seek to build an all-party consensus for action against the judge facing allegations of corruption after the discovery of a large amount of cash from his official residence in Delhi.
Government sources said Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju has begun consultations as part of efforts to get leaders of different parties on board for the impeachment motion against Varma following his indictment by a three-member probe committee constituted by the Supreme Court.
A fire incident at Varma’s residence in the national capital in March this year, when he was a judge at the Delhi High Court, had led to the discovery of several burnt sacks of cash at the outhouse.
Though Varma claimed ignorance about the cash, the Supreme Court-appointed committee indicted him after speaking to a number of witnesses and recording his statement.
The then Chief Justice of India, Sanjiv Khanna, is believed to have prodded him to resign but Varma dug in his heels. The apex court has since transferred him to his parent cadre of the Allahabad High Court, where he has not been assigned any judicial work.
Khanna then wrote to the President and the Prime Minister, recommending the impeachment motion, which is the procedure for axing members of the higher judiciary from service.
Parliament’s monsoon session is expected to begin around the third week of July when the government will move the motion against him, sources said.
The impeachment motion has to be brought in the Lok Sabha as well as the Rajya Sabha, and will need the support of two-thirds of the MPs for passage.
