Justice Yashwant Varma withdrew from impeachment proceedings, alleging denial of fairness and due process by the inquiry committee. He claimed burden of proof was reversed without a prima facie case, expressing deep concern over the manner of proceedings.
Allahabad High Court judge Justice Yashwant Varma who had submitted his resignation to the President has withdrawn from the ongoing impeachment proceedings. In a 13-page letter to the Judges Inquiry Committee under the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968, Justice Varma alleged that he has not been given basic fairness and due process. He also claimed that the burden of proof has been reversed against him, despite the Committee not having established any initial case on the underlying allegations.
He said,
“I therefore withdraw from these proceedings with immediate effect and have instructed my Advocates accordingly. I withdraw with the deepest sadness, conscious of the gravity of my decision and with the hope that history will one day record the unfairness with which a sitting High Court Judge was treated and that has marked this entire episode from its inception,”
Justice Varma said,
“Despite repeated requests, this best evidence that could shed light on the entire incident has been kept away. My attempts at obtaining even a clone or copy of the same has consistently been declined,”
It is pertinent that this development follows Justice Varma’s submission of his resignation to the President of India. The three-member Judges Inquiry Committee was formed last year by the Lok Sabha Speaker under the Judges Inquiry Act, 1968, after more than 100 Lok Sabha MPs moved a motion seeking Justice Varma’s impeachment.
The Committee includes Justice Aravind Kumar of the Supreme Court, Justice Shree Chnadrashekhar, Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, and Senior Advocate B.V. Acharya. Justice Varma had earlier challenged the constitution of the Committee before the Supreme Court last year, contesting the initiation of the inquiry proceedings against him. The challenge was unsuccessful.
Justice Varma stated that the incident pertains to a fire that occurred in a storeroom within his official residence during the Holi break in March 2025, when he and his spouse were away on vacation in a remote location with limited connectivity. He said he was informed about the fire only after it had been brought under control. According to him, he learned later about the alleged discovery of cash at the premises.
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In the concluding portion of the letter, Justice Varma stated that he had also written to the President of India. He said that continuing with the proceedings would be detrimental to both himself and the institution. He added that, in his view, the way the inquiry was conducted would be assessed in the future. He stated that the episode reflected the treatment of a serving High Court judge and that posterity would evaluate the fairness of the process.
Raising objections to procedural fairness, Justice Varma claimed that multiple witnesses who had testified in ways favourable to him were removed from the inquiry without explanation. As recorded in his letter, out of 54 witnesses examined earlier, 27 were dropped. This included officials from the Delhi Fire Services and Delhi Police, after cross-examination allegedly produced facts that were inconsistent with the allegations.
He also contended that the inquiry proceeded largely on presumptions rather than evidence, and that it imposed on him an excessive burden to disprove allegations about the ownership or placement of cash cash that, he said, was never connected to him through any evidence.
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