THE SUPREME COURT TODAY dismissed a petition filed by Justice Yashwant Varma of the Allahabad High Court challenging the recommendation for his removal by the then Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, along with the constitution of an in-house inquiry committee and the procedure it followed in probing the alleged recovery of a large sum of semi-burnt bundles of unaccounted cash from his official residence in Delhi.
The court underscored that the Chief Justice of India, as head of the judiciary, is morally, ethically, and legally empowered to take necessary steps to safeguard the institutional integrity of the judicial system when informed of serious misconduct by a judge.
A bench comprising Justices Dipankar Datta and Augustine George Masih upheld the constitutionality and legality of the in-house inquiry process initiated by then CJI Khanna, which began with the formation of a three-judge committee and concluded with a May 8 communication to the President and Prime Minister recommending Justice Varma’s removal.
“The CJI, as the leader of the judiciary, apart from his various other duties owes a duty to the people of the country to keep the justice delivery system pure, clean and unpolluted,” Justice Datta said speaking for the court, “It is unreasonable to even think that despite an incident of the present nature, the CJI would wait for the Parliament to take action. As observed before, it is up to the Parliament whether or not to activate Article 124.”
