An inquiry committee formed by the Lok Sabha has found that “unexplained bundles of Rs 500” were recovered from the Delhi residence of former High Court judge Yashwant Varma and that he had given misleading explanations about it, reported Live Law on Wednesday.

In its report tabled in Parliament, the three-member committee said that all the charges framed against Varma are proved.

The unaccounted cash had been recovered at Varma’s official residence in Delhi when emergency services responded to a fire there on March 14, 2025. He was a judge at the Delhi High Court at that time.

The judge said that he was in Bhopal at the time of the incident and claimed that the cash did not belong to him or his family.

The controversy prompted his transfer to the Allahabad High Court.

The panel noted in its report on Wednesday that Varma failed to provide a satisfactory explanation about the “presence, source or ownership” of the cash, reported Live Law.

The cash was neither secured nor preserved and later disappeared, the panel was quoted as saying by The Indian Express. This disappearance remains unexplained, it added.

The committee further noted that the explanations given by Varma were “evasive and unsatisfactory when tested against the evidence of independent official witnesses”.

Referring to Varma’s written reply to Delhi High Court Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya on March 22, 2025, the panel said that the former judge “did not exhibit the candour, transparency and institutional responsibility expected in the circumstances”.

Varma had claimed that the accusations against him were part of a conspiracy to frame and malign him.

He resigned from his post in April, more than two months after Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the process to impeach the judge was underway.

The three-member committee had been formed by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on August 12, 2025. It was headed by Supreme Court judge Justice Aravind Kumar and comprised former Bombay High Court Chief Justice Shree Chandrasekhar and advocate BV Acharya.

While Birla had stated in the House that the panel would submit its report at the earliest, the investigation was delayed since Varma challenged the legality of the inquiry committee in the Supreme Court.

On January 16, the Supreme Court rejected his petition.

Days after the cash was recovered, the Supreme Court had also set up a three-member committee to look into the allegations.

On March 22, 2025, the court released a report, including a video and three photographs, showing bundles of notes that were allegedly recovered from the judge’s home.

As Varma had at the time declined to voluntarily retire or resign, Sanjiv Khanna, the chief justice of India at the time, sent the final inquiry committee report on the incident to the president and the prime minister.

The committee, in its report, had concluded that there was “sufficient substance” in the charges against Varma. The report dated May 3, 2025, held that the judge’s misconduct was “serious enough to call for initiation of proceedings for removal”.

Edited by Sneha.

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