New Delhi: Over100 MPs have signed their consent to bring an impeachment motion in Parliament against Justice Yashwant Varma, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said, a day before the monsoon session begins. The judge hit headlines when a huge sum of unaccounted cash was recovered from his Delhi home after a fire in March. The cash recovery triggered allegations of massive corruption within the Judiciary, prompting the Supreme Court to start an inquiry. A three-member panel has recommended his impeachment, and the judge has challenged this in the top court. The cash recovery row has also played out against the backdrop of some voices in the ruling dispensation accusing the Supreme Court of judicial overreach and stressing the supremacy of Parliament. According to the Constitution, a Supreme Court judge can be removed from office only through a Presidential order on the grounds of "proved misbehaviour or incapacity".

A motion for impeachment in such a case will be admitted only if it has the support of at least 50 members in the Rajya Sabha or at least 100 in the Lok Sabha. This motion would need the support of two-thirds of the MPs in the House for passage.

Earlier, Rijiju said corruption in the judiciary is an "extremely sensitive" matter and all political parties are united on this issue. "The government will bring an impeachment motion against Justice Yashwant Varma in this session," he said.

Main Opposition Congress, sources have said, has also joined cause with the ruling BJP on this front. About 35 Lok Sabha MPs, including Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, have signed the proposal to bring the impeachment motion against the judge, the sources added.