Supreme Court non-committal about early hearing of plea to register an FIR in Justice Yashwant Varma incident

The Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai on Monday (July 21, 2025) asked a petitioner seeking an urgent hearing of a plea to register a First Information Report (FIR) on allegations regarding the discovery of burnt cash from the residential premises of High Court judge, Justice Yashwant Varma, whether he wanted his petition to be dismissed now.

The CJI neither committed to an early hearing nor visibly appeared in court to outright dismiss the petition filed by the petitioner-advocate Mathews Nedumpara. The lawyer insisted that an FIR “has to be registered”.

In his petition, the third in a series, the lawyer criticised the Centre for not initiating “an effective and meaningful investigation” into the allegations.

An in-house inquiry committee had submitted a confidential report on the alleged incident in early May, affirming the presence of cash and recommending the removal of Justice Varma from office. The then CJI, Justice Sanjiv Khanna, had forwarded the report to the President and the Prime Minister to commence the processes of a removal motion in the Parliament. Justice Varma has himself approached the Supreme Court, questioning the legality of the in-house procedure and the recommendation for his removal from office.

Mr. Nedumpara’s petition has coincided with both Justice Varma approaching the apex court and the opening of the Monsoon Session of Parliament.

In his first petition, the court had asked Mr. Nedumpara to wait for the in-house inquiry report.

“After the committee had submitted its report, no FIR was registered. The petitioner filed yet another writ petition and was asked by the court to approach the President and the Prime Minister… To the petitioner’s knowledge, no FIR has been registered till date,” the petitioner-advocate had submitted.