Delhi HC withdraws work from judge Yashwant Varma amid claims of unaccounted cash found at his home

The Delhi High Court on Monday withdrew judicial work from Justice Yashwant Varma with immediate effect till further orders amid allegations that unaccounted cash was found at his home.

It also said that the Court Master of Division Bench-III, headed by Varma, would give dates in matters listed to be taken up for the day, The Hindu reported.

The cash was allegedly recovered when emergency services responded to a fire incident at Varma’s official residence on March 14. The judge said that he was in Bhopal when the fire erupted.

On Saturday, the Supreme Court released a report, which included a video and three photographs of when the cash was found. The video and the photos showed a fireman pulling out half-burnt wads of money from a room.

The redacted report showed that Delhi High Court Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya had written to Varma on Friday, asking him to “account for the presence of money/cash” in a room located in his bungalow.

In response, Varma told Upadhyaya that “no cash was ever placed in that storeroom either by me or any of my family members”, and denied that the money belonged to them.

On the same day, the Supreme Court said that it had set up a three-member committee to look into the allegations against Varma.

The panel comprises Punjab and Haryana...

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