New Delhi: The Centre confirmed the Supreme Court collegium’s decision to transfer Delhi High Court judge Justice Yashwant Varma, who is in the middle of an alleged cash stash row, to the Allahabad High Court.

The Centre’s green light comes a day after Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna met heads of bar associations from six states including Delhi, Gujarat, Kerala, Karnataka, Lucknow, and Prayagraj. “In exercise of the power conferred by clause (1) of Article 222 of the Constitution of India, the President, after consultation with the Chief Justice of India, is pleased to transfer Shri Justice Yashwant Varma, Judge, Delhi High Court, to be a Judge of Allahabad High Court and to direct him to assume charge of his office in the Allahabad High Court,” the Union Law Ministry said in a notification today.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Friday disposed of a plea seeking direction to the Delhi Police to register an FIR and cause an effective and meaningful investigation into the allegations that a huge pile of burnt cash was discovered at the official bungalow of Justice Yashwant Varma of the Delhi High Court. “The ‘in-house’ inquiry is ongoing. If the report finds something wrong, an FIR could be directed, or the matter could be referred to the Parliament. Today is not the time to consider (the registration of FIR),” a bench headed by Justice Abhay S. Oka told advocate Mathews J. Nedumpara, the party in-person. After the report is submitted by the committee constituted in terms of the “in-house procedure”, there are several options open for the Chief Justice of India (CJI), added the Bench, also comprising Justice Ujjal Bhuyan.

“At this stage, it would not be appropriate to entertain this petition. There are wider prayers for reading down some of the earlier judgments of this Court. At this stage, according to us, it would not be necessary to go into that aspect. Subject to what is observed above, the petition is disposed of,” ordered the apex court.

CJI Khanna told the in-person litigant not to “make public statements”, adding that the registry would list the petition in due course. Questioning the non-registration of an FIR on March 14 itself, the day when unaccounted cash was reportedly found after the fire brigade had gone to Delhi HC judge Varma’s residence in the national capital to douse a fire, the petition said the delay on the part of the authorities concerned to make available to the public the electronic records leads to the irresistible inference that what was going on was an attempt at a cover-up.

“Why no arrests were made, why the money was not seized, why no mahazar prepared, why the criminal law was not put into motion.

Why did it take almost a week for the public to know about the scandal? Justice Varma, in his explanation, stated that it is not his money, that he never kept any money, he is fully taken aback by it. Then why did he not report to the police and seek the registration of an FIR of an attempt to falsely implicate him,” the petition further said.