Judge cash-at-home row: VP Jagdeep Dhankhar says Centre ‘handicapped’ to act; refers to Ides of March | India News

NEW DELHI: Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Monday reiterated Justice Yashwant Varma’s case and said that the government was handicapped due to a three-decade-old judicial order that prevented it from registering a First Information Report (FIR) without prior permission from the judiciary.Dhankhar, who is on a two-day visit to Kerala, has interacted with students and faculty at the National University of Advanced Legal Studies (NUALS), Kochi. Calling the Yashwant Varma cash-at-home case ‘ghastly crime,’ Dhankhar referring to the large stash of cash recovered from a judge’s official residence, he questioned, “Is this money tainted? What is its source? How did it land in a judge’s quarters? Who does it actually belong to?” He stressed that several legal provisions appear to have been violated and expressed hope that an FIR would be filed promptly. Referring to Ides of March film, the Vice President said that the judiciary had ‘Ides of March’ on the night intervening 14th and 15th March: a terrible time!“Cash in large amount was found the official residence of a judge of the High Court. Now, if that cash was found, the system should have moved immediately and the first process would have been to deal with it as a criminal act, find out those who are culpable and bring them to justice. But so far, there has been no FIR,” Dhankhar said. “The government at the central level is handicapped because an FIR cannot be registered in view of a judgment of the Supreme Court rendered in early 90s. I’m all for independence of Judiciary. I’m a strong votary of protecting judges. We must protect our Judges from frivolous litigation. But when something like this happens, it is worrisome,” he added. Earlier, on June 4, parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju said the government would bring out a resolution in Parliament in the monsoon session for impeachment motion against Justice Varma. Justice Varma was subject of a probe by a Supreme Court-appointed panel after a fire incident at his Delhi residence led to the discovery of several burnt sacks of cash at the outhouse.

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