“If there was a crime, a culpable act shaking the foundations of democracy — the rule of law, why wasn’t it punished”.
Amid reports of Centre introducing an impeachment motion against Allahabad High Court Judge Yashwant Varma in the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament, Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar today questioned that more than three months have been lost and “if there was a crime, a culpable act shaking the foundations of democracy — the rule of law, why wasn’t it punished”.
The decision to introduce the impeachment motion follows a Supreme Court-appointed inquiry panel’s appointed inquiry panel’s indictment of Justice Varma over allegations of unaccounted cash discovered at his official residence in Delhi after a fire on March 14, 2025.
“I have raised the issue. Ultimately, if a motion is brought to remove a judge, is that the answer? If there has been a crime, a culpable act shaking the foundations of democracy — the rule of law, why wasn’t it punished? We have lost more than three months, and the investigation has not even been initiated. Whenever you go to court, they ask why the FIR was delayed,” Dhankhar said, interacting with members of the Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Association in Chandigarh today
Dhankar lamented that the government could not lodge an FIR because of a three-decade old judicial order.
“The Government of the day is handicapped. It can’t register an FIR. Because there is a judicial order. And that judicial order is more than three decades old. It provides virtually impregnable cover. Unless permission is accorded by a functionary at the highest level in the judiciary, an FIR can’t be registered. So I pose a question to myself, in deep pain, worried, concerned, in anguish — why was that permission not given? That was the minimum that could have been done on the earliest occasion,” he added.
“Does the committee of judges have a constitutional sanction? Does it have statutory sanction? Can this report result in any outcome? Can this report, by itself, be actionable? If a judge removal mechanism is there, the Constitution says this removal mechanism can be initiated either in the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha. This is the only way.
“Then this committee cannot substitute for an FIR investigation. Now, the separation of powers. Penal thing has to follow it. If we have to lay claim on democracy, on the rule of law, equality before law, let me tell you — even the President of India and the Governors — they have immunity from prosecution only till they are in office. No other body has it. No other in the country, no other constitutional office has this immunity, and that too while in office. Now, how can we have a mechanism that such a crime — a culpable act — revealed from a document revealed by the Supreme Court, that there was a cash haul,” he also added.
