Recalling 2016 case where Justices Varma, Chandrachud took exception to recusal petition

Justice Yashwant Varma — the Delhi High Court judge under scrutiny over the burnt cash stash discovered in a storeroom of his official residence — once recused himself from a case because of his past association with Simbhaoli Sugars.

Before being elevated to bench from bar in October 2014, Justice Varma acted as the legal counsel of Simbhaoli Sugars. More importantly, he was a non-executive director of the agri-business and FMCG company in 2012, due to which the Central Bureau of Investigation, while registering an FIR in a bank fraud case against Simbhaoli and its promoters in 2018, named him as an accused as well.

But even two years before that, when he was a judge in Allahabad High Court, he had to recuse himself from hearing a case of pending dues to sugarcane farmers after the petitioner objected to his presence on the Bench and the case was then listed before another Bench.

A case of recusal

The incident happened in January 2016, when Justice Varma was part of a Division Bench headed by the then Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court, DY Chandrachud, who later got elevated to the Supreme Court and retired as the Chief Justice of India.

Also read: Who is Justice Yashwant Varma, the Delhi HC judge embroiled in cash-in-home row?

The case was of a public interest litigation (PIL) demanding the payment of pending dues to sugarcane farmers in Uttar Pradesh, show court documents. The PIL was filed by a farmers’ body, Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan, and its convenor VM Singh appeared in person to argue the case.

Singh said the demand was to get unpaid dues to sugarcane farmers along with interest, and sugar mill owners were against this demand. “I filed a written application seeking the recusal of Justice Varma since he was once a director in Simbhaoli Sugars, and Simbhaoli was party to the matter I was arguing,” recalled Singh.

Bench took exception

The Bench objected to the application. While the judges agreed to the request of recusal of Justice Varma, they took exception to the fact that an application had been filed while the process is simply to mention the issue before the court, so that the case can be assigned to another Bench.

Also read: Cash discovery row: Judicial work withdrawn from Justice Yashwant Varma, says Delhi HC

“In any event, we are of the view that the matter may be placed before a Bench of which one of us (Hon’ble Yashwant Varma, J.) is not a member,” the Bench said on January 1, 2016.

At that time, Justice Varma was an additional judge of the high court. In February 2016, he was made a permanent judge of the court, while merely three months later, in May 2016, Justice Chandrachud got elevated to Supreme Court.

A near-repeat

There was a near-repeat of this incident later that same year — on August 2, 2016 — when the matter again came up for hearing before a Bench of which Justice Varma was a part.

The other member of the Bench was the then Chief Justice of Allahabad High court, Justice Dilip Babasaheb Bhosle. The judges ordered the matter to be listed before another Bench.

In October, 2021, Justice Varma got transferred from the Allahabad High Court to the Delhi High Court.

And on March 14, burnt currency notes stashed in bags were recovered from the storeroom of his official residence following a fire. The Supreme Court has ordered an inquiry and, for the time being, transferred Justice Varma back to Allahabad High Court.