Cash recovery controversy: Justice Yashwant Varma resigns amid impeachment proceedings

New Delhi: Amid the cash recovery dispute and impeachment proceedings, Justice Yashwant Varma submitted his resignation to the President on Friday.According to ANI, impeachment proceedings were launched against him in Parliament following controversy over the alleged discovery of unaccounted cash. Justice Varma of the Allahabad High Court was earlier transferred from the Delhi High Court after the allegations surfaced. He was sworn in on April 5 last year and was subsequently subject to an internal Supreme Court-led investigation that recommended further action.

What happened to the case?

The core allegation in the case is that police recovered unaccounted cash after a fire broke out in a storeroom at Justice Varma’s residence on March 14.Firefighters found a large amount of cash at the scene. The judge was not at his residence at the time.The incident triggered an internal Supreme Court investigation that led to impeachment proceedings in Parliament.The Speaker of the Lok Sabha accepted the motion signed by 146 MPs and set up a three-member committee to investigate the allegations. The panel included Justice Amit Kumar, Justice Maninder Mohan Srivastava and BB Acharya.During an earlier hearing, the Supreme Court had questioned why Justice Varma did not question the internal inquiry process from the outset but instead participated in it and later raised objections.Justice Varma argued that the proceedings were unconstitutional and challenged the findings and the recommendation by then Chief Justice of India Sanjeev Khanna to initiate impeachment.