The Delhi high court on Monday refused to entertain a petition seeking a first information report (FIR) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into allegations of the discovery of unaccounted cash at the official residence of former Allahabad high court judge Justice Yashwant Varma, calling the plea a “wild witch hunt.”
Standing counsel Premtosh Kumar Mishra, who represented the government, CBI and Delhi Police, argued that Upadhyay had no locus and that an alternative remedy was available to him. He pointed out that he had approached the Supreme Court seeking similar relief, but the petition was dismissed without granting him liberty to approach the high court. Videos purportedly showing bundles of currency notes burning surfaced when a fire broke out at Justice Varma’s official residence while he was serving as a judge of the Delhi high court. Justice Varma and his wife were travelling in Madhya Pradesh at the time, while his daughter and elderly mother were at the residence.
Justice Varma maintained that neither he nor any member of his family had placed money at the site. Justice Varma was repatriated to his parent Allahabad high court, and judicial work was withdrawn from him pending further action.
A bench of Justice Amit Bansal permitted the petitioner, advocate Ghanshyam Upadhyay, to withdraw his petition for registration of an FIR and constitution of a special investigation team to probe the alleged recovery in Delhi in March 2025. “You have nothing better to do?
The court said that Upadhyay had an alternate remedy and no locus to file the petition. I am dismissing it,” the bench told Upadhyay. Upadhyay said that neither a magistrate nor a special court is competent enough to do “justice” with the matter.
