Justice Yashwant Varma is currently the third senior most judge at the Delhi High Court.
New Delhi: A sensational news broke on the morning of Friday, 21 March 2025 as it stated that huge cash has been recovered from the residence of Justice Yashwant Varma of the Delhi High Court. The cash was recovered when the fire brigade went to douse a fire that had broken out there, according to reports. Justice Yashwant Varma, 56, is currently the third senior most judge at the Delhi High Court with a 22-year career as a lawyer, and a 10-year career as a High Court judge as part of his profile.
According to the latest reports, the Supreme Court has started an in-house inquiry against Justice Varma and has sought a report from the Delhi High Court Chief Justice Devendra Upadhyaya. Going into the in-house investigation, Supreme Court Chief Justice/ Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna will constitute a three-member fact-finding committee of two Chief Justices from other High Courts and a High Court judge.
A brief profile of Justice Yashwant Varma:
His date of birth is 06/01/1969.
He graduated in Law from Rewa University in 1992.
He enrolled as an advocate on August 08, 1992.
He practised mainly on the civil side handling varied nature of matters relating to Constitutional, Industrial Disputes, Corporate, Taxation, Environment and allied branches of Law.
He was also the special counsel for the Allahabad High Court from 2006 till elevation.
He was the Chief Standing Counsel for the State of Uttar Pradesh (UP) from 2012 till Aug 2013 whereafter designated as Senior Advocate by the Court.
Elevated as Additional Judge on Oct 13, 2014.
Took oath as Permanent Judge on Feb 01, 2016.
Transferred to Delhi High Court on Oct 11, 2021.
A few high-profile cases handled by Justice Yashwant Varma are:
Income Tax reassessment proceedings against Congress: A Division Bench headed by Justice Varma dismissed several petitions moved by the Congress party opining that the IT Department prima facie had “substantial and concrete evidence” to further scrutinise the political party’s income.
PayPal reporting entity obligation under PMLA: As a single-judge, Justice Varma held that online payment platform PayPal is a ‘payment system operator’ within the framework of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). This means that PayPal will have to comply with Section 12 of the PMLA which makes it mandatory for a ‘reporting entity’ to maintain records of all transactions and verify and maintain the records of identities of all its clients for a period of ten years.
Powers of Enforcement Directorate (ED): Justice Varma held that ED does not have the power to investigate any offence other than money laundering and the agency cannot assume by itself that a predicate offence has been committed.
Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act: Justice Varma held that disclosure of proposals and documents relied upon to grant sanction for prosecution under Section 45(1) of the UAPA can be exempt under Section 8(1)(a) of the Right to Information Act.
Judicial Bias: Justice Varma held that judicial bias in a case need not be proven as existing in fact but only needs to be tested from the viewpoint of an ordinary person and evaluated based on the test of reasonable apprehension.
Based on the outcome of the investigation, Justice Varma, may either be asked to resign or be removed from office by Parliament, under Article 124(4) of the Constitution.
(The above information has been collated from the official website of the Allahabad High Court and Bar and Bench)
