Lok Sabha to take up motion to remove Justice Varma, motion not admitted in Rajya Sabha

New Delhi: Lok Sabha will take up a bipartisan motion to remove Justice Yashwant Varma, who is embroiled in a suspected corruption case, as the opposition-sponsored notice for a similar motion in Rajya Sabha was not admitted.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said on Friday that it was a unanimous decision of all political parties to move unitedly in a case of perceived corruption in judiciary, asserting that Lok Sabha will take up the motion, which was signed by 152 MPs from the ruling alliance and the Opposition.

Official sources said the opposition-sponsored notice for a similar motion in Rajya Sabha, which received it on the same day when the bipartisan notice was submitted to Lok Sabha on July 21, has not been admitted.

This ends speculation about the fate of the notice signed by 63 Rajya Sabha members of opposition parties. Then Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar had mentioned receiving it in the House, alarming the government and triggering a chain of events that led to his abrupt resignation on the same night.

Rijiju said all political parties had agreed that the removal of Varma should be a joint call, adding that the proceedings will be taken up in Lok Sabha and then move to Rajya Sabha in line with the Judges (Enquiry) Act.

"We shouldn't remain in any doubt, proceedings will begin in the Lok Sabha," he said.

Speaker Om Birla is expected to announce the three-member enquiry committee to probe the charge against the Allahabad High Court judge.

Dhankhar had on July 21 cited the Judges (Inquiry) Act in Rajya Sabha to assert that when notices of a motion are submitted on the same day in both the Houses of Parliament, a committee to examine the charges levelled against the judge will be constituted by the Lok Sabha Speaker and the Rajya Sabha Chairman.

However, official sources claimed that the notice was not admitted in the Upper House.

Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh is now the officiating presiding officer and has been part of the consultation with the government and within Parliament over the issue.

The three-member committee, which will include either the Chief Justice of India or a Supreme Court judge, a high court chief justice and a distinguished jurist.

A fire incident at the outside of Varma's residence in the national capital had led to the discovery of half-burnt wads of currency, leading to then-Supreme Court Chief Justice Sanjeev Khanna setting up a three-judge committee which had indicted him.

As Varma, who was repatriated from Delhi High Court to his parent Allahabad High Court, declined to heed Khanna's suggestion to resign, the then chief justice of India sent the committee report to the President and the Prime Minister, recommending his removal.

Varma, who has protested his innocence, has moved the Supreme Court against the findings of the committee.