The MPs will submit a memorandum to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to depose Supreme Court judge Justice Yashwant Varma in July 2025 in New Delhi. Photo credit: ANI
TJustice Yashwant Varma’s resignation has revived a question that Indian law has not satisfactorily answered in the last 14 years. When a judge ends up in the shadow of a parliamentary impeachment, will the statutory inquiry against him fall with him? The question came up earlier. When Justice PD Dinakaran resigned in July 2011, the committee was dissolved, despite sitting after his resignation. Justice Soumitra Sen’s case went even further. His commission of inquiry returned unfavorable findings. The Rajya Sabha voted for his removal in August 2011. He resigned on the eve of the Lok Sabha polls and the motion was withdrawn as indecent. Justice Varma has now resigned as his committee is nearing its conclusion. The first two episodes did not bring any reform. The third is still ongoing.
Spokesperson Om Birla stands on the same fork. One path leads back to the choice made by Vice President Hamid Ansari in September 2011 when he abolished the committee to probe the allegations against Justice PD Dinakaran. The second was given that year by lawyer G. Mohan Gopal, a member of this committee, in a letter to his two colleagues. The letter, which was later obtained under the RTI Act, was read and circulated. Her reasoning prevailed in the committee, which did not bring the investigation to an end. Mr Ansari yes. This reasoning has not been refuted. His opportunity now came again.
Published – 21 Apr 2026 22:59 IST
