Justice Yashwant Verma Cash recovery: Supreme Court Refuses to make findings Public
This comes after an RTI application filed with the court’s information officer seeking these details.
Justice Yashwant Verma Cash recovery: Supreme Court Refuses to make findings Public, latest news: The Supreme Court has refused to make public the findings of the three-member inquiry committee—appointed by the top court—into the alleged case of cash recovery from former Delhi High Court judge, Justice Yashwant Verma, via the Right to Information.
According to a report by NDTV, former Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna had forwarded the findings of the inquiry committee to the President and Prime Minister, along with a letter, and the top court has even refused to make the copy public.
This comes after an RTI application filed with the court’s information officer seeking these details.
The Central Public Information Officer of the Supreme Court rejected the application, saying that it cannot be provided, citing the decision in the Subash Chandra Agarwal case, the report said.
In the 2019 judgment, the Supreme Court held that the Chief Justice of India’s (CJI) office is a public authority under the RTI Act. This means it is not above transparency and can be asked for information under RTI. However, the Court also said that the right to information is not absolute — it must be balanced with privacy, confidentiality, and judicial independence.
According to the report, the CPIO rejected the latest application also citing provisions of the RTI Act, including Sections 8(1)(e) and 11.
The provisions say that the information is confidential, held in a fiduciary capacity, and involves third-party interests, and disclosure without consent would breach confidentiality.
Earlier, the Supreme Court on March 22, 2025 had released a press note along with a 25-page in-house inquiry report submitted by Delhi High Court Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya regarding allegations of cash recovery from the residence of Justice Yashwant Verma.
In the report, the Chief Justice of India, following the preliminary findings, constituted a three-member inquiry committee to further probe the matter.
The panel comprising Chief Justice Sheel Nagu of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Chief Justice G. S. Sandhawalia of the Himachal Pradesh High Court, and Justice Anu Sivaraman of the Karnataka High Court, finalized its report on May 3.
The panel submitted the report to the then Chief Justice of India, Sanjiv Khanna, a day later, according to the NDTV report.
Justice Verma, in his written response as submitted to the Supreme Court by the Delhi High Court Chief Justice, had denied the allegations. In the report made public by the Supreme Court, he had firmly rejected any suggestion that he or his family stored cash there, questioned the authenticity of the evidence shown to him, and claimed that neither he nor his staff saw any cash during or after the fire.
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