In a significant development, the central government on Friday notified the transfer of Justice Yashwant Varma from the Delhi High Court to the Allahabad High Court amid the probe over the alleged discovery of cash at his residence.
"In exercise of the power conferred by clause (1) of Article 222 of the Constitution of India, the President, after consultation with the Chief Justice of India, is pleased to transfer Shri Justice Yashwant Varma, Judge, Delhi high court, to be a Judge of Allahabad High Court and to direct him to assume charge of his office in the Allahabad high court," the order said.
The Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court for the time being has been asked not to assign any judicial work to Justice Yashwant Varma, when he assumes charge as a Judge of the Allahabad High Court.
The Supreme Court Collegium earlier had recommended his repatriation to his parent high court following the development.
In another development, Justice Yashwant Varma did not find a mention in the recently constituted committees of judges on the administrative side of the Delhi High Court.
A spate of key events has followed the discovery of burnt wads of cash following a fire at the judge's official Lutyens home on March 14.
Though the Supreme Court has called it a separate decision, Justice Varma, the second senior-most judge of Delhi High Court, was recently recommended for a transfer to his parent Allahabad High Court. He was part of several such administrative committees previously.
According to a March 27 circular published on the high court's website, the committees were reconstituted with immediate effect from March 26.
The 66 committees that were reconstituted include Administrative and General Supervision, Grievance Redressal Committee for Advocates, Finance and Budgeting for the sanction of contingent expenditure and writing off losses exceeding Rs 5 lakh aside from Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence.
All the other high court judges, including Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya, comprise the various committees. Earlier, work from Justice Varma was withdrawn following a directive from the CJI.
On March 22, the CJI constituted the three-member committee to conduct an in-house inquiry into allegations and decided to upload on the SC website the inquiry report of Chief Justice Upadhyaya, which included photos and videos of the alleged discovery of a huge stash of cash.
Justice Varma denounced any insinuation and said no cash was ever placed in the storeroom either by him or any of his family members.