Overview
- A Supreme Court bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma on January 16 dismissed Justice Yashwant Varma’s petition challenging the Lok Sabha Speaker’s constitution of an inquiry committee under the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968.
- Varma argued a joint committee was mandatory because removal motions were moved in both Houses on July 21, 2025, but the Court noted the Rajya Sabha motion was not admitted and indicated the Deputy Chairman could perform the Chairman’s functions.
- The three‑member parliamentary committee, led by Justice Aravind Kumar with Justice Manindra Mohan Srivastava and senior advocate B V Acharya, continues its probe and has asked Varma to appear on January 24.
- In a written response submitted on January 12, Varma told the committee he was away from Delhi during the March 2025 fire, asserted that no cash was recovered in his or his family’s presence, and said there is no contemporaneous recovery memo or CCTV footage.
- He also contended the alleged recovery site was an outhouse separated from his residence and accessible to others, as the broader case follows an in‑house Supreme Court inquiry that found misconduct and preceded the Lok Sabha Speaker’s August 12, 2025 admission of a removal motion.