{"id":354131,"date":"2025-06-06T05:27:47","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T10:57:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/?p=354131"},"modified":"2025-06-07T00:36:07","modified_gmt":"2025-06-07T06:06:07","slug":"hc-judge-cash-haul-case-govt-cant-register-fir-because-of-three-decade-old-judicial-order-says-dhankhar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/hc-judge-cash-haul-case-govt-cant-register-fir-because-of-three-decade-old-judicial-order-says-dhankhar\/","title":{"rendered":"HC judge cash haul case\u2014Govt can\u2019t register FIR because of three-decade old judicial order, says Dhankhar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cIf there was a crime, a culpable act shaking the foundations of democracy \u2014 the rule of law, why wasn\u2019t it punished\u201d.  <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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 \u201cif there was a crime, a culpable act shaking the foundations of democracy \u2014 the rule of law, why wasn\u2019t it punished\u201d.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision to introduce the impeachment motion follows a Supreme Court-appointed inquiry panel\u2019s appointed inquiry panel\u2019s indictment of Justice Varma over allegations of unaccounted cash discovered at his official residence in Delhi after a fire on March 14, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cI 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 \u2014 the rule of law, why wasn\u2019t 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,\u201d Dhankhar said, interacting with members of the Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Association in Chandigarh today<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dhankar lamented that the government could not lodge an FIR because of a three-decade old judicial order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Government of the day is handicapped. It can\u2019t 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\u2019t be registered. So I pose a question to myself, in deep pain, worried, concerned, in anguish \u2014 why was that permission not given? That was the minimum that could have been done on the earliest occasion,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDoes 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThen 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 \u2014 even the President of India and the Governors \u2014 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 \u2014 a culpable act \u2014 revealed from a document revealed by the Supreme Court, that there was a cash haul,\u201d he also added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf there was a crime, a culpable act shaking the foundations of democracy \u2014 the rule of law, why wasn\u2019t it punished\u201d.   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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":187,"featured_media":347183,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36],"tags":[16576,19760,19726],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354131"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/187"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354131"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":354135,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354131\/revisions\/354135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/347183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}