The Supreme Court on Friday denied a newspaper report about the purported transfer of the second senior-most judge of Delhi High Court, Justice Yashwant Varma, to Allahabad High Court over the alleged discovery of a large volume of cash from his home.

The apex court castigated the “misinformation” and “rumours being spread with regard to the incident”. The statement neither denied nor confirmed the alleged cash discovery.

A media release, issued through additional registrar and PRO Rakesh Sharma, said the proposal to transfer Justice Varma to his parent high court in Allahabad was still under the Supreme Court collegium’s consideration. It said the matter was “independent” of any “in-house enquiry”.

It did not say what the enquiry was about.

The news report had said the Supreme Court collegium had on Thursday recommended Justice Varma’s transfer to Allahabad High Court following the alleged cash discovery.

It said fire services personnel had discovered the cash after being called to the judge’s residence following the outbreak of a fire on March 14. Justice Varma was stated to be out of Delhi at the time.

It remained unclear why, if such an incident did happen, Delhi police were yet to register an FIR, a week later.

“There is misinformation and rumours being spread with regard to the incident at the residence of Mr Justice Yashwant Varma,” the Supreme Court statement said, without clarifying what the “incident” was about.

“On receiving the information, the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court commenced the in-house enquiry procedure collecting evidence and information. The Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, who had commenced his enquiry prior to the Collegium meeting on 20th March 2025, will be submitting his report to the Chief Justice of India today i.e. on 21st March 2025. The report will be examined and processed for further and necessary action.”

The statement added: “The proposal for transfer of Mr Justice Yashwant Varma, who is the second senior-most Judge in the Delhi High Court and a member of the Collegium, to his parent High Court i.e. the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, where he will be ninth in seniority, is independent and separate from the in-house enquiry procedure.

“Moreover, the reported incident has happened in Delhi. The proposal (for the judge’s transfer) was examined by the Collegium comprising of the Chief Justice of India and four senior-most Judges of the Supreme Court on 20th March 2025, and thereafter letters were written to the consultee Judges of the Supreme Court, the Chief Justices of the High Courts concerned and Mr Justice Yashwant Varma. Responses received will be examined and, thereupon, the Collegium will pass a resolution.”

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal told The Telegraph the allegation “needs to be inquired
into thoroughly”.

He dismissed any suggestion about impeaching the judge, underlining that the impeachment procedures initiated against judges in the past had all been thwarted by some political party or other. Impeaching a judge requires Parliament’s sanction.

Sibal suggested that the Supreme Court should itself “graft” a new procedure to deal with allegations of misconduct and corruption against high court and apex court judges.

Delhi police sources said a “routine general diary” had been registered at Tughlak Road police station relating to the fire at Justice Varma’s residence.

“An FIR was not registered as there were no injuries in the incident,” a police officer said. “There was also no mention of any seizure or recovery of cash, either, by the fire department.”

The police officer said firefighters had noticed jute sacks, purportedly full of cash, in a corner of the house but the judge’s staff told them the sacks contained court papers and documents.

A police team too had arrived at the house after receiving information about the fire, he said.

Sources said some of the firefighters had shot a video of the jute sacks, purportedly containing cash, and it was apparently sent to the Chief Justice of India.

Atul Garg, chief fire officer, Delhi Fire Services, rebutted a report on a TV channel that he had denied the recovery of cash from the judge’s residence.

Garg told this newspaper he had not made any comment to the TV channel. “Job of recovering is done by police, not by fire (services),” he said.

The Allahabad High Court Bar Association has opposed Justice Varma’s possible transfer to the high court.