00:00Justice Yashwan Verma of the Allahabad High Court has resigned.
00:03Remember, a year after a major controversy erupted over alleged recovery of a large amount of cash from his official
00:10residence in Delhi,
00:11Justice Verma has put down his papers.
00:14His resignation has been submitted to the President.
00:16The controversy dates back to March last year, when a fire broke out at Justice Verma's official residence in Delhi.
00:22During firefighting operations, tax of cash, some reportedly over 1.5 feet high, were said to have found at the
00:29site.
00:30The then-Chief Justice took cognizance of this, following which Justice Verma was transferred from the Delhi High Court to
00:36the Allahabad High Court.
00:37However, Justice Verma has denied the claims, maintaining that no cash was retrieved from his residence.
00:42An earlier in-house inquiry panel set up by the Supreme Court had found that Justice Verma and his family
00:47members
00:48had indeed control over the room where the cash was allegedly found.
00:52With the probe continuing and the prospect of impeachment proceedings only looming now,
00:56Justice Verma has now stepped down from his position.
01:00Remember, there were demands earlier as well that because the investigation was, in fact, pending,
01:06he should take a stand and step down, but he did not.
01:09Now, finally, Justice Verma has stepped down.
01:12I'm going to go straight across to Anisha for more on that.
01:15Anisha, like we said, there were demands earlier as well that because this is an impending probe,
01:20he should step down.
01:21Now, we do know that the prospects of impeachment proceedings are only looming
01:26and that's the reason which has forced Justice Verma's hands on this one, isn't it?
01:30Stepping down from his post.
01:31Well, it seems that way, certainly, because the letter that he has sent to the President of India,
01:36and I'm quoting here, the letter that he has sent resigning his position as a judge of the Allahabad High
01:43Court,
01:44he says, I do not propose to burden your August office with the reasons which have constrained me to submit
01:50this missive,
01:51but it is with deep anguish that I tender my resignation.
01:55Now, with the immediate effect.
01:57Now, if you see the timeline, last year in March, the fire broke out.
02:01Allegedly, cash was found.
02:03Questions were asked.
02:04In-house inquiry was set up.
02:06In April last year, the in-house inquiry had said that there seems to be certain questions that Justice Verma
02:14has not been able to answer.
02:15After that, we saw the impeachment proceedings, the motion being moved in the Parliament,
02:21the Speaker of the House setting up, and the inquiry committee under the Judges' Inquiry Act.
02:28And this year, we've seen one of the judges, one of the members of this committee, he retired,
02:34and therefore the committee was reconstituted in February this year.
02:37And just weeks after the committee has been reconstituted, Justice Verma has now resigned.
02:43It was being widely speculated, Sneha, that the committee report may be filed in the Parliament,
02:50either in the monsoon session or even in the winter session.
02:55That means there was widespread speculation that this committee report may actually be tabled before the Parliament sometime in the
03:03next coming months.
03:04So, it seems that Justice Verma has now tendered his resignations,
03:08which means that this inquiry of the Parliament will now remain in fructose.
03:14And if you can give me just 10 more seconds, Sneha.
03:16Effectively, what this means is that this, once again, this means that the inquiry,
03:22the impeachment proceedings will become infructuous.
03:26And this, we've seen over the years, none of the judges who face this kind of proceedings
03:32have actually been impeached.
03:33So, once again, he seems to have resigned rather than face the Parliament.
03:38Back to you.
03:38All right.
03:39I'm going to leave it at that for the moment.
03:40Anisha, getting into those details.
03:41I'm going to leave it at that for the moment.
03:41I'm going to leave it at that for the moment.
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