By Rajesh Pandey
In an important development, the Allahabad High Court Bar Association (HCBA) on Saturday decided to call off its five-days long strike and will resume work on Tuesday (April 1, 2025). However, the HCBA has decided to continue their agitation against the alleged corruption in the judiciary, and as part of it, the bar association will boycott the oath-taking ceremony of Justice Yashwant Varma, who has been transferred to Allahabad High Court from Delhi High Court.
In a press release, the bar association says that their agitation will stand postponed till the report of inquiry instituted against Justice Varma is announced.
The Allahabad High Court is the parent high court of Justice Varma, from where he took oath as a judge in the year 2014 and transferred to the Delhi high court in 2021.
It is significant to note that the transfer order has come despite the protests of the Allahabad High Court Bar Association (HCBA).
In a meeting of HCBA, which was presided over by its president Anil Tiwari and conducted by its secretary Vikrant Pandey, it was decided to hold a national level press conference on April 26, where the bar association will announce its future course of action. The HCBA’s senior vice-president, Rajesh Khar, also actively participated in the meeting.
Apart from all the office-bearers of HCBA, the senior advocates who attended the meeting included TP Singh, Ashok Mehta, Rahul Shripat, Mukesh Prasad and former secretary of bar Veer Singh.
Justice Varma is facing an in-house inquiry by a three-judge panel constituted by the chief justice of India over the allegations regarding the discovery of alleged cash currencies at his official premises.
Justice Varma became a centre of controversy on March 21 after the publication of news reports that a fire at a storeroom in the outhouse of his official bungalow led to the alleged discovery of sacks of caes.
On March 22, the CJI, Justice Sanjiv Khanna, constituted a three-member committee to conduct an inquiry into the allegations against Justice Varm as part of the in-house procedure.
This was followed by the Supreme Court making the video of the fire dousing, the report of the Delhi High Court Chief Justice, and Justice Varma’s response public on its official website. Justice Varma has denied possession of cash and claimed it to be a conspiracy against him.
On March 24, the Delhi High Court withdrew judicial work from Justice Varma in pursuance of directions from the Apex Court.
