Delhi Fire Services chief said not a single penny found while dousing fire at DHC Judge’s bungalow by Fire service staff

There is now an absolute twist on the allegations being made in various news reports that cash was found from one of the rooms of the house of the Delhi High Court Judge Yashwant Verma.

According to the statement issued by the Director of the Delhi Fire Services Atul Garg not a single penny was found by the while conducting the dousing operations on the eve of the Holi after being informed by their staff about the fire as the entire family was out of station including the Delhi High Court justice Yashwant Verma.

According to the news reports the DFS Chief also called the matter “sensitive” and further refrained from commenting on the issue.

The Fire Service chief states that “No cash was recovered in front of the Delhi Fire Service team…After dousing the fire, we handed over the spot to the police.

My team is denying any claims of cash being present at the spot when they were carrying operations,” DFS director Atul Garg said.

The top official of the fire department also mentioned that the fire incident took place at the residence when Justice Verma and his family were not on the premises.

“Someone from the staff made the call. The fire incident happened on the eve of Holi,” he said.

Kindly recall that Justice Yashwant Varma has been transferred to his parent High Court of Allahabad after an adverse report about alleged recovery of cash during a fire at his residence as per the news reports suggest from various newspapers and news channels.

In an exclusive interview with Republic Media Network, senior Advocate of the Supreme Court and King’s Counsel, UK, Harish Salve launched a scathing attack on the system, demanding accountability and urgent reforms.

When asked about his initial observations and whether the collegium made the right decision in recommending Justice Verma’s transfer, Salve said, “I have been a trenchant critic of the collegium system, and this exposes yet another strong fault line in this whole construct by which the entire judiciary is administered.”

Salve strongly criticized the collegium’s decision to transfer Justice varma, calling it an unacceptable response. “Judges are like Caesar’s wives and must be above suspicion,” he asserted.

Justice Varma is considered as one of the best judges in the Delhi High Court. Lawyers amongst themselves point out that everyone should go through his progressive judgments
denying any recovery of cash from the residence of the Justice Yashwant Varma.

In another change of stance the Supreme Court of India issued a press release denying transferring the Delhi High Court judge to Allahabad on punishment. According to a press release issued by the Supreme Court, the Collegium is yet to make any official recommendation to transfer him; rather, the proposal is still under consideration. According to news reports quoting the SC press release the judicial appointments body has sought inputs from consultee judges of the Supreme Court, the Chief Justices of the concerned High Courts and Justice Varma himself on the proposal.

“Responses received will be examined and, thereupon, the Collegium will pass a resolution,” the press release said.

Pertinently, the press release stated that the transfer proposal is independent of the in-house inquiry initiated by the Court against Justice Varma over the allegations of cash recovery from his house.

As per the apex court’s press release, while the in-house probe was pursuant to the cash recovery allegations, the transfer proposal is independent of that.

“The proposal for transfer of Mr. Justice Yashwant Varma, who is the second senior most Judge in the Delhi High Court and a member of the Collegium, to his parent High Court i.e. the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, where he will be ninth in seniority, is independent and separate from the In-house enquiry procedure,” the press release stated.

The Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court commenced the in-house inquiry procedure, collecting evidence and information prior to the Collegium meeting of March 20, it added.

The Chief Justice will be submitting his report to Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna later today and the report will be examined and processed for further and necessary action, the top court said.