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Former Attorney General of India and senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi has called for a forensic investigation into the cash-at-home scam and said there is a need to streamline the system of disciplinary action against judges instead of the current rule of impeachment. The only constitutional action against judges, impeachment, is so complicated that in the last 75 years, no judge has been impeached, despite three or four attempts, he told NDTV in an exclusive interview. 

Calling the incident a “huge dent in the heart of judicial dispensation system,” he said if the people see “this kind of thing and if the judge is guilty, action should be taken at the earliest”. 

“There must be a better system for disciplinary action,” Mr Rohatgi said. “Today, the only action under constitution is impeachment. Impeachment is so laborious, complex and difficult that no impeachment has taken place in 75 years,” he said, while discussing the case of Justice Yashwant Varma, the sitting judge of the Delhi High Court, from whose house a stack of partially burnt currency notes were recovered on March 14, the night of Holi. 

The recovery was made by the fire department, which was called in to douse a fire at the Delhi bungalow of the judge.   

Along with it, Mr Rohatgi also questioned the Supreme Court’s decision to order an internal investigation into the matter. 

There is a need for a police investigation, forensic investigation. large number of VCDs, CCTV footage. This evidence should be collated to get at the bottom of the issue, he added. 

The senior advocate also questioned the current system of selection of judges through a collegium.

“The old debate on the manner of appointment of judges and the manner of disciplinary proceedings against judges has to be relooked at,” he said. 

Calling the collegium is “absolutely unsatisfactory and opaque”, he said the Supreme Court has interpreted the constitution “somewhat selectively”.

“The attempt to bring in sunlight 10 years ago was turned down by the court. If the NJC (National Judicial Commission) was bad, we can have some via media, some sunlight, some outsiders, who have a committee which should recommend judges and there should not be only “judges selecting judges,” he added.  

Justice Varma was moved to the Delhi High Court from the Allahabad High Court in 2021. Today, the Supreme Court said it has recommended his transfer back to the parent court – a decision that has also been taken apart by critics. The top court’s statement that the transfer has nothing to do with the discovery of the burnt currency has also been questioned.

“I never understood this statement (of the Supreme Court) that this transfer has nothing to do with the cash scam. According to me, it is because of the cash scam that he is proposed to be transferred,” Mr Rohatgi said. “We should come to the bottom of the issue — whether the judge is delinquent, is he guilty of moral turpitude or he is not and his reputation is being blackened,” he added.  

Former Solicitor General Harish Salve said any transfer should be put on hold till the matter is investigated.  “Because if he (Justice Varma) was being transferred not because of this but because of other administrative reasons, the two issues have got joined at the hip. If the allegations against him are false, it is very unfair to him to transfer him and if they are true, then a transfer is too little,” he said.

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has given the Home Ministry four weeks – the ask was for eight weeks, i.e., April 21 – to decide on the issue of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi‘s citizenship.

Questions around Mr Gandhi’s citizenship – he has been a Lok Sabha MP since 2004 and is currently the Leader of the Opposition – have been doing the rounds for several years now.

The present case is based on a petition filed by a private individual from Karnataka, who has also sought an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation. The petitioner – a BJP worker called Shishir – claimed he had new information about Rahul Gandhi’s citizenship status.

He claimed to have confidential e-mails to support his claim. “We have direct communication from the UK government that Mr Gandhi is in their citizenship records,” he told NDTV.

“We have presented all the documents. Under Indian laws dual citizenship is not allowed. Once someone takes the citizenship of another nation, Indian citizenship gets cancelled.”

In a previous hearing in this matter (in November last year) a bench of Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Om Prakash Shukla had directed Deputy Solicitor General SB Pandey, appearing for the home ministry, to take directions – yet to be filed so far – about action taken regarding the plea.

READ | Rahul Gandhi Is UK Citizen, Claims Petitioner. Home Ministry Says…

The Home Ministry was then given three weeks to respond.

Meanwhile, last month the Delhi High Court, which is hearing an identical plea – filed by ex-BJP MP Subramanian Swamy in 2019, directed the union government to seeks instructions.

Mr Swamy, who first raised this allegation in 2015, told a bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice TR Gedela that he had written about Mr Gandhi’s citizenship status, but no action was taken.

The Delhi High Court had earlier observed dual proceedings in this case – i.e., the petition in Allahabad and in the national capital – but questioned the centre on its apparent inaction.

Mr Swamy’s plea is based on claims that a former British company – formed in 2003 and dissolved six years later – listed Mr Gandhi as a UK national in some of its records.

The Congress has always dismissed any talk of Mr Gandhi being anything other than Indian. His sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, declared, “Everyone knows Rahul Gandhi is Indian and was born and raised here…” Mr Gandhi himself called the allegation “an endeavour to malign my name”.