The Aryavarth Express
NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna on Thursday assured bar leaders to consider their demand for withdrawal of the collegium’s recommendation to transfer Delhi High Court’s Justice Yashwant Varma, Allahabad High Court Bar Association president Anil Tiwari said.
The representatives of six bar associations of different high courts met the CJI and other collegium members—Justices B R Gavai, Surya Kant, Abhay S Oka, and Vikram Nath—in the afternoon.
They deliberated upon the memorandum of the bar bodies and assured consideration of their demand, said Tiwari after coming out of the meeting held in the apex court.
He said 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.
Earlier in the day, representatives of the bar associations of high courts in Allahabad, Gujarat, Kerala, Jabalpur, Karnataka, and Lucknow submitted a memorandum to the CJI’s office and sought an appointment to meet Justice Khanna.
While pointing out an 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, the members questioned the non-registration of an FIR in the 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 the transfer of Justice Yashwant Varma and to withdraw all administrative work in addition to the judicial work that is already withdrawn,” the memorandum said.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.
