Kapil Sibal slams Govt, says ‘without investigation, an institution is being attacked’ over Justice Varma probe

NEW DELHI: Senior advocate Kapil Sibal on Saturday strongly criticised the Centre and the Supreme Court’s in-house inquiry against Justice Yashwant Varma, alleging that the process lacked transparency, violated due procedure, and amounted to an unwarranted attack on the judiciary without proper investigation.

“If the government says it wants to initiate the impeachment process, then it cannot do so. So why is the government interfering in this? The incident happened in an outhouse located in the area allotted to the judge. Without any investigation, an institution is being attacked…” Sibal said while speaking to media.

He was responding to a March incident in which a fire at Justice Varma’s residence in New Delhi, during his tenure as a Delhi High Court judge, led to the discovery of unaccounted cash in an outhouse.

Following the incident, the Supreme Court constituted an inquiry committee following allegations of “burnt cash” found at a storeroom of Justice Varma’s residence when he was a Judge of the Delhi High Court. The in-house inquiry committee submitted its report on the issue last month, which has since been forwarded to the Prime Minister and the President of India.

Sibal criticised the committee for not hearing the judge or following due procedure.

“There can only be two things – first, the government is upset with him over something, or they think this is the time to bring the NJAC (National Judicial Appointments Commission) and pressurise the Supreme Court to give them charge of appointing judges. If any political party interferes with this, then it is not good…This is a serious matter,” he said.

Sibal also accused the government of selectively protecting judges, pointing to the case of Allahabad High Court’s Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav, who faced criticism for alleged communal remarks in 2024.

“Rajya Sabha Secretariat is saying that my signature doesn’t match on the impeachment motion on (against Shekhar Kumar Yadav). They have spent six months, and yet they have not verified my signature,” he added.

Earlier on June 17, Sibal slammed the Supreme Court’s in-house inquiry against Justice Yashwant Varma, saying that the three-member committee indicted the judge without hearing him and without following any procedure.

In the press conference, he had said the committee report did not mention the amount of money recovered from the outhouse near Justice Varma’s residence in New Delhi.

“The committee concluded that if the cash was placed in the outhouse, it must have been after the judge’s permission,” said Sibal.

The in-house report was prepared by Justice Sheel Nagu, Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court; Justice G.S. Sandhawalia, Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court; and Justice Anu Sivaraman of the Karnataka High Court.

“You decided against a High Court judge without any inquiry and procedure…The judge was not even heard. This is absolutely shocking,” Sibal said. (ANI)