New Delhi, March 23 A plea has been filed before the Supreme Court (SC) seeking direction to the Delhi Police to register an FIR and cause an effective and meaningful investigation into the allegations that a huge pile of burnt cash was discovered at the bungalow of Justice Yashwant Varma of the Delhi High Court, claimed a Mumbai-based lawyer on Sunday.
Questioning the non-registration of FIR on March 14 itself, the day this unaccounted cash was reportedly found after a fire brigade had gone to Justice Varma's residence to douse a fire, the petition said that the delay on the part of the authorities concerned to make available to the public the electronic records leads to the irresistible inference that what was going on was an attempt at a cover-up.
“Why no arrests were made, why the money was not seized, why no mahazar prepared, why the criminal law was not put into motion. Why did it take over almost a week for the public to know about the scandal? Justice Varma in his explanation has stated that it is not his money, that he never kept any money, he is fully taken aback by it. Then why did he not report to the police and seek the registration of an FIR of an attempt to falsely implicate him,” the petition further said.
“The case at hand is an open and shut case. It is a case of holding black money accumulated by selling justice. Even attempting to believe Justice Varma’s own version, the question still remains as to why he did not file an FIR. Filing an FIR even belatedly is absolutely necessary to enable the police to enable the police to investigate the conspiracy aspect,” contended the plea by advocate Mathews J Nedumpara and others.
It said: “In Justice Yashwant Varma’s case no FIR has been filed to the knowledge of the petitioners. The public perception is that every effort will be made to cover up the issue, to the extent even the initial statements regarding recovery of money is now being refuted.”
Further, it sought the declaration that the three-member panel constituted by the SC Collegium has no jurisdiction to conduct an investigation into the incident is void ab initio since it constitutes various cognisable offences under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
Saying that the corruption in the judiciary substantially and directly infringes the fundamental rights enshrined in Part III of the Constitution, the petitioners said that they, as citizens of the country, have every right, unquestionable locus standi, to directly petition the SC.
The plea questioned the judgement of a five-judge Constitution Bench in K. Veeraswami v. Union of India case, where it was held that no criminal case should be registered against a judge of the High Court, Chief Justice of a High Court or judge of the Supreme Court unless the Chief Justice of India (CJI) is consulted in the matter.
“The said observation of the Court is one rendered per incuriam, in ignorance of law and sub silentio, without noticing that the police is under a statutory duty to register an FIR when it receives information of a cognisable offence, and the said direction of the Court is nothing short of restraining the police from discharging their statutory duty,” it said.
The plea said that such a direction creates a special class of judges, immune from the penal laws of the land and has stood in the way of an FIR being registered even in an offence involving POCSO.
On Friday, CJI Sanjiv Khanna constituted a three-member committee to conduct an inquiry against Justice Varma.
“The Chief Justice of India has constituted a three-member Committee consisting of Justice Sheel Nagu, Chief Justice of the High Court of Punjab & Haryana, Justice G.S. Sandhawalia, Chief Justice of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh, and Anu Sivaraman, Judge of the High Court of Karnataka, for conducting an inquiry into the allegations against Justice Yashwant Varma, a sitting Judge of the High Court of Delhi,” said a press statement released by the SC.
It added that the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court for the time being has been asked not to assign any judicial work to Justice Yashwant Varma.
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