A Supreme Court-appointed inquiry panel has recommended the removal of Justice Yashwant Varma of the Allahabad High Court after finding his conduct “unnatural” and raising serious concerns over the discovery of unaccounted cash at his Delhi residence. The panel stated that large piles of currency, including unburnt and half-burnt ₹500 notes, were recovered during a fire incident in March. Despite multiple witnesses observing the cash, Justice Varma failed to inform the police or any senior judicial authority, a lapse the panel found deeply questionable.

The committee, which examined 55 witnesses including the judge’s daughter, found corroborative accounts from Delhi Fire Service and police officials, who were among the first responders to the fire. Videos and photographs taken at the scene showed heaps of banknotes strewn across the storeroom floor. The panel also noted that access to the storeroom was controlled solely by Justice Varma’s family and that the area was later cleaned, and the money disappeared. A private secretary allegedly instructed officials to omit any mention of the cash from official reports, raising further suspicion.

Rejecting Justice Varma’s claim of being framed, the panel said the eyewitness accounts, visual proof, and unexplained disappearance of cash pointed to deliberate concealment. It also highlighted the potential involvement of his daughter and private secretary in tampering with the scene. The judge, currently back at the Allahabad High Court but without judicial assignments, has denied wrongdoing and criticized the probe as unfair. However, the inquiry concluded there was “sufficient substance” in the allegations to warrant his dismissal.