Cash discovery row: 63 Oppn MPs submit notice in RS for removal of Varma

Sixty-three Opposition MPs on Monday, 21 July, gave a notice in the Rajya Sabha to move a motion for the removal of high court judge Yashwant Varma from whose residence burnt wads of currency notes were found following a fire incident in March.

Congress MP Syed Naseer Hussain said the notice has been submitted to chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar.

A similar notice for moving a motion to remove Justice Varma has been submitted by ruling BJP and opposition members in the Lok Sabha.

Hussain said, "63 opposition MPs, including those from AAP and INDIA bloc parties, have given a notice to the Rajya Sabha chairman for removal of justice Varma."

Although TMC members were not present today, they are on board on the issue and will submit their signatures later, he said.

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A motion for the removal of a judge has to be signed by not less than 100 MPs in the Lok Sabha and 50 in the Rajya Sabha.

The motion can either be accepted or rejected by the speaker/chairman of the House.

If the motion is admitted, the speaker or the chairman of the House forms a three-member committee in accordance with the Judges Inquiry Act.

The committee comprising a senior judge of the Supreme Court, a sitting chief justice of a high court and a distinguished jurist will then probe the charges levelled against justice Varma and come out with a report in three months.

The inquiry report will be tabled in Parliament followed by a discussion in both Houses, after which there will be voting on the motion for removal of justice Varma.

Though justice Varma has denied any wrongdoing, a Supreme Court-appointed in-house inquiry panel has concluded that the judge and his family members had covert or active control over the storeroom, where the cash was found, proving his misconduct serious enough to seek his removal.