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Amid allegations following a fire that allegedly uncovered cash at the residence of Delhi High Court Judge Justice Yashwant Varma, speculation and media coverage have intensified. Justice Varma has denied the allegations calling the claims ‘baseless’ and ‘preposterous’.
In response to this, the Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna formed a three-member panel to conduct an deeper probe into allegations.
The panel includes Justice Sheel Nagu, Chief Justice of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana, Justice G S Sandhawalia, Chief Justice of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh, and Anu Sivaraman, Judge of the High Court of Karnataka.
In an exclusive conversation with iTV Network, Justice SA Bobde, Former CJI talked about the gravity of the matter.
He said: ‘It is far too serious a matter to be left to people’s opinions and gossips and prejudices.’
He further said that the CJI has instituted, formed a committee to look into it. And we must all wait and not jump to the conclusion till the committee gives its opinion.
When asked if there was any precedent for handling allegations against any judge in general, Justice Bobde said that there had been several instances in the past, even allegations had been made against the CJI in the past, he said.
In an exclusive interview with iTV Network, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, former SC judge also addressed the situation.
Justice Kaul said, ‘There have been similar allegations made against judges in the past. For instance, there was an incident in the Punjab and Haryana High Court where money was mistakenly delivered to a judge but, Ultimately, nothing came out of it, and the judge demitted office.’
When asked as to how will the judiciary ensure that such incidents do not undermine the public trust in the judicial system, Justice Kaul said: ‘Such incidents, regardless of the result, do undermine the image of the judiciary. We are in the social media era, where before anything happens, everything is thrown into the public domain.’
He further said: ‘We are also in an era where, unfortunately, there is very little trust among people, and so there is a tendency to blame people very quickly, even before an inquiry is made.’
He said that the endeavor was to ensure that the best people join the judiciary. There are mechanisms in place to deal with scenarios like this. I do believe that if something is found against a judge, the moral obligation should be such that the Chief Justice of India should be able to persuade the person to step down, Justice Kaul added.
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