Bar Association Presidents' Meet Sanjiv Khanna Over Justice Varma Transfer, CJI Assures To Consider Their Demand
CJI has agreed to consider withdrawing the recommendation to transfer Justice Yashwant Varma to Allahabad High Court. The transfer recommendation followed the discovery of cash at his residence.
Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna on Thursday assured bar leaders to consider their demand for withdrawal of the collegium's recommendation to transfer Delhi High Court's Justice Yashwant Varma, Allahabad High Court Bar Association president Anil Tiwari said.
The development comes after the Supreme Court collegium has recommended the transfer of Delhi High Court Judge Justice Yashwant Varma to Allahabad High Court; the president of the Allahabad High Court Bar Association, Anil Tiwari, along with members from bar associations of other states, have requested time to meet Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna. The members from the bar associations came to the national capital regarding the cash found at Justice Yashwant Varma's residence.
#WATCH | Presidents of Bar Associations of High Court of Allahabad, Lucknow bench, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Jabalpur bench of Madhya Pradesh have come to Supreme Court to meet Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and other senior judges on the issue of Justice Yashwant Varma.… pic.twitter.com/JuX6sLgsl3
— ANI (@ANI) March 27, 2025
The representatives of six bar associations of different high courts met the CJI and other collegium members—Justices B R Gavai, Surya Kant, Abhay S Oka and Vikram Nath—in the afternoon.
According to news agency PTI, they deliberated on the memorandum of the bar bodies and assured consideration of their demand, said Tiwari after coming out of the meeting held in the apex court. He said the Allahabad High Court bar body would reconsider whether or not to continue with the indefinite strike. The Allahabad High Court Bar Association has been on an indefinite strike from March 25 to protest the proposed repatriation of Justice Varma to his parent high court.
According to the report, the bar bodies appreciated the steps taken by the CJI to embrace transparency and to make public the report of the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court and other materials on the apex court website. The bar associations request the Chief Justice and the collegium to withdraw the transfer of Justice Yashwant Varma and to withdraw all administrative work in addition to the judicial work, which is already withdrawn, the memorandum said.
The alleged cash discovery happened following a fire at Justice Varma's Lutyens Delhi residence at around 11.35 pm on March 14, prompting the fire officers to rush to the spot. In the wake of the controversy, the apex court collegium recommended the repatriation of Justice Varma, from whom work was withdrawn by the Delhi High Court following a directive from the CJI, to his parent Allahabad High Court.
On March 22, the CJI constituted the three-member committee to conduct an in-house inquiry into allegations and decided to upload the inquiry report of Chief Justice D K Upadhyay of the Delhi High Court in the incident. Justice Varma has denounced the allegations and said no cash was ever placed in the storeroom either by him or any of his family members.
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