SC Dismisses Plea of Ex-Delhi High Court Judge Verma
The apex court rejected Justice Yashwant Verma's petition, upholding the inquiry process and the recommendation to remove him following the discovery of burnt cash at his home.
- The Supreme Court has dismissed a petition by former Delhi High Court judge Justice Yashwant Verma.
- Justice Verma had challenged the investigation and the recommendation to remove him from his post.
- An internal inquiry was launched after burnt currency notes were found at his official residence on March 14, 2025.
GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 7th Aug: The Supreme Court has delivered a major setback to former Delhi High Court judge Justice Yashwant Verma, dismissing his petition that sought to invalidate an internal inquiry report and challenge the recommendation to remove him from office. The court stated that his petition was not maintainable.
The case stems from an incident on the night of March 14, 2025, when a fire broke out at Justice Verma’s government bungalow on Tughlaq Road in Delhi. At the time, the judge was out of the city. When fire and police teams arrived to extinguish the flames, they allegedly discovered a large amount of burnt and partially burnt ₹500 notes stuffed in sacks in a storeroom.
Given the seriousness of the matter, then-Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna took suo moto cognizance and formed a three-judge committee for an internal investigation. The committee’s report concluded that the storeroom where the cash was found was under the control of Justice Verma and his family. The panel deemed his failure to disclose the source of the cash as “serious misconduct” and recommended that impeachment proceedings be initiated against him.
Following the report, over 200 members of Parliament from both the ruling and opposition parties signed an impeachment motion and submitted it to the Lok Sabha Speaker during the monsoon session. Justice Verma then filed a petition in the Supreme Court, challenging the legality of the inquiry and its report. However, the apex court upheld the entire process as legal and constitutional. The Supreme Court had previously commented during an earlier hearing that Justice Verma, having participated in the inquiry himself, could not later question its validity.
