Justice Yashwant Varma of Allahabad High Court, facing impeachment proceedings over the alleged recovery of burnt wads of unaccounted for cash from his Delhi residence, resigned on Friday.

Justice Varma sent his resignation letter to President Droupadi Murmu and marked a copy to Chief Justice of India Surya Kant.

No judge in India has ever been impeached.

“While I do not propose to burden your august office with the reasons that have constrained me to submit this resignation, it is with deep anguish that I hereby tender my resignation from the office of judge of the Hon’ble High Court of Judicature at Allahabad with immediate effect,” he wrote in his letter.

The development comes against the backdrop of the pending impeachment proceedings in Parliament after Justice Varma’s twin attempts to challenge the process in the Supreme Court by way of writ petitions were dismissed in August 2025 and January this year.

On January 16, the Supreme Court cleared the decks for Parliament to proceed with the impeachment after a two-judge bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Augustine George Masih said there was no procedural irregularity in Speaker Om Birla admitting a notice of motion for such a step.

Justice Varma has challenged the Speaker’s decision to constitute a committee to probe the allegations against him based on a notice of motion submitted by 100 Lok Sabha members on July 21 last year, despite a similar notice being served on the same day by 50 Rajya Sabha members to then Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar.

Justice Varma had challenged the inquiry committee constituted by the Speaker “in an unilateral” way without consulting the Rajya Sabha Chairperson, as the impeachment notice was pending in both Houses.

On August 7 last year, the top court had dismissed Justice Varma’s petition challenging the probe conducted against him by an in-house three-member panel, which had recommended his removal.

The apex court had rejected Justice Varma’s contention that the panel’s recommendation had prejudiced the possible impeachment proceedings in Parliament, as he pleaded that members of the two Houses were expected to act independently without being influenced by the panel’s report.

The three-judge panel had held that there was evidence of “unimpeachable character” to hold that the unaccounted for currency notes were destroyed in a mysterious fire at Justice Varma house, and his “misconduct found proved is serious enough to call for initiation of proceedings (impeachment) for (his) removal”.