Editorial with Sujit Nair | Will Justice Yashwant Varma Be Impeached?

[00:00:00] Namaskar, welcome to another episode of editorial. Before I start my editorial, before I get into my topic of the day, I have a clarification to make. You see there is a sea of information that comes through about the India-Pakistan conflict or now India-Pakistan war. Lot of information, most of them comes from very credible source.

[00:00:29] But the fact remains that there is always a chance that some of these information may not be 100% factually correct. And therefore, HW has decided that we will not be sharing any information as we get it.

[00:00:51] And we will be actually looking into the information, confirming it, reconfirming it and then we will present in front of you, which may take 24 hours. So we will be presenting the previous day's events the next day. I know this may cost us a lot of viewership, this may cost us a lot of traction, I understand but we still would like to be safe.

[00:01:18] Because nobody is immune to the information overload that is happening currently. And like I said, in this information overload, there are a lot of information which may not be 100% correct. So this is how we want to immunize ourselves and we want to ensure that there is no fake information that goes out of this channel.

[00:01:43] That was the clarification I wanted to give you. Let's get into the topic of the day. Now, do you remember Justice Yashwant Verma? Justice Yashwant Verma, I am asking you do you remember is because we tend to forget a lot of things. Our public memory, all our memory, very short. So we tend to forget.

[00:02:08] And the fact that today and in the recent week, our mind has been diverted to the India-Pakistan conflict war now, like I said before, I guess it is also quite understandable if we have forgotten Justice Yashwant Verma.

[00:02:29] But let me remind you, Justice Yashwant Verma was the justice in Delhi High Court who was then transferred to Allahabad High Court because 15 crores was found in his residence when his residence had caught fire or part of his residence had caught fire.

[00:02:52] And this on March 14th, the holy day. Holy day is when this fire happened and holy day is when the firefighters found around 15 crores of rupees cash in his house. Now, I have done an entire editorial on that. I have done the entire story on that. So I am going to attach that link down below.

[00:03:18] So please do have a look at it if you haven't seen that editorial and if you want to know more details about that. So it all happened. And on 22nd March, the Chief Justice of India had asked for a three-member inquiry committee. The three-member inquiry committee included Sheel Nagu, Chief Justice of High Court of Punjab, and Haryana, Justice G.S. Sandhawala, Chief Justice of High Court of Machal Pradesh,

[00:03:48] and Justice Anu Sivaraman, Judge of the High Court of Karnataka. So three-member committee was set up and this three-member committee was inquiring into this cash found in Justice Yashwant Verma's residence.

[00:04:07] Now, today the committee found that there is credence in the allegation that there was cash found in Justice Yashwant Verma's residence. There was cash found. That was the report the committee gave the Chief Justice of India. Now, reports also say the Chief Justice asked Yashwant Verma to resign. But Yashwant Verma refused to resign.

[00:04:36] So now they say that the Chief Justice of India has written to the President of India and the Prime Minister of India, asking them to remove, impeach this Justice, this judge, and throw him out from the legal justice system. This is the story so far.

[00:05:03] Now, there are a couple of things that we need to take into consideration. This is one case. This is one case of 15 crores lying in a judge's house. 15 crore cash lying in a judge's residence. Fortunately, it came to light because of act of God. There was a fire in his house.

[00:05:28] Otherwise, nobody, nobody would have found out. And the judge would have enjoyed his 15 crores which was lying in his house. Now, how does 15 crore come to a judge? How does a judge earn this kind of money? Cash! Earn this kind of money is one thing. And having cash in the house, obviously, obviously, the logic is that it's ill-gotten money.

[00:05:58] First of all, 15 crore cash, if it is lying in somebody's house, it is definitely, definitely, definitely ill-gotten. If 15 crores is lying in somebody's house, it is bribe. This is not some money that has come through some legal proper sources. First of all, so much cash cannot be delivered under Indian laws, legally. So, if a judge is having this kind of money, what did he trade this money for?

[00:06:27] He has traded this money for justice. He has traded this money for justice, which means he either has put an innocent man behind bars because somebody paid him or he has pardoned a guilty because somebody paid him money. So, a guilty man, possibly a murderer, is roaming around the street because this judge took money and let him go

[00:06:56] or an innocent is languishing behind bars because this judge took money and got him behind bars. This is the reality. I want to put this perspective very clearly in front of you all. Let us not just say that, okay, it's not paisa fine. Because now in India, this is no, you know, identifying 15 crores from a government official and you know,

[00:07:27] now it has become more or less normal. It is normal. So, now what? It is normal in India. I mean, we are a corrupt nation. There is no question about it. Corruption has always been there in our country. There is no question about it. Let us not kid ourselves. But, you are talking about a profession like the legal justice system. A judge who decides a person's life, he or she can write and end your life.

[00:07:55] A verdict from this judge can end your life. A verdict from this judge can ensure that you either get justice or you are deprived of one. And it is his residence that they found 15 crores. That too, not because there was a raid or there was an investigation or there was a body that was, you know, kind of keeping their eye on them or investigating him and then they found him, pounded him and caught the money. Aisa kuch nahi hai.

[00:08:25] It is thanks to, it is the will of God that there was a fire and this money was found. Point number one. This cannot be just left as a one-off case. I think India should start thinking. You see, if a judge is corrupt, the nation is corrupt. If a justice system, if the justice system rots, then there is nothing left of democracy

[00:08:55] and nothing left of the constitution. And this is a, is an indication that Lord Almighty showed in front of us that our justice system is corrupt. What is the government now going to do next? Enjac? Is that the solution? That is, National Judicial Appointment Commission. Is that the solution? Where you put government, get government involved in selecting judges?

[00:09:25] Can the government say that people who government have selected has not taken bribe? We spoke about Krishnamurti Subramaniam yesterday who wrote a book and sold the book to Union Bank for 7.5 crores. Union Bank bought 2 lakh copies of that book. Who had selected them? Government had selected them. What did he do? So, Enjac, if that's the solution that government is going to now talk about and now propagate and now publicize, then that

[00:09:54] is absolutely incorrect. Because the government has not proven itself to be capable to hire non-corrupt and clean system, develop non-corrupt and clean system. The government is not capable of that. Then what? Then what is the solution? Point number one. Point number two. Let me ask you, why is there no ED inquiry? Why is there no CBI inquiry? Why no CBI or ED till date has

[00:10:23] you know followed or tried to shadow a judge, identify a judge proactively, suomoto, go raid a judge's house and then find money? why hasn't it happened? Why are we living under this illusion that justice system is clean? In fact, judges say that justice system is not clean. Most of the judges will agree that justice system is not clean. Most of the judges have openly said

[00:10:53] that the justice system is not clean. We as people of India know that our justice system is not clean. We as people of India know that there are corrupt judges, people who take money and give judgment on your behalf or against you. We all know it but yet our investigative agencies doesn't seem to know it. There are raids against politicians. There are raids against everybody but why are there no raids against judges? Why are we pretending that judge

[00:11:22] and justice system is very clean, Baba? Why are we pretending that? Point number two, point number three. You see, while you know judge should be should be respected, a judge should be kind of given all the respect and that is true to every human being in this country but when are we going to stop

[00:11:52] this colonial mindset of ours? My lord, I showed you the photograph of that video of that woman who was pleading my lord please folding her hands when are we going to get rid of this colonial system from our mind where the judge is seen as God? The judge is doing his job for which he is being paid. Why don't we look at it that way? He gets a salary, he gets perks, he gets everything that is paid from a

[00:12:22] taxpayer's money. Why? Because he is doing the job of a judge. Matter starts there, ends there. Why is a judge being seen holier than thou? Why are we not putting an end to this? You see the judge serves the people, it is not vice versa, it is not that the people serves the judge. My lord, my god, my great god, why all this? I have reported

[00:12:51] stories to you where a judge lost a dog and he writes to the joint commissioner of police. Joint commissioner of police in Delhi, who is joint commissioner normally is the number to the commissioner of police. Joint commissioner of police is a very serious job, a very senior position. He handles, if he is handling law and order, he handles the entire police station of that particular commissioner. commissioner, if he is in crime, then he handles the entire crime network of that particular commissioner. This judge wrote

[00:13:21] to the joint commissioner of police saying that my dog is missing. Put more security. I mean, where does this mindset come from? We give this mindset to these judges. You see, it is time that India realizes that judge and Indians, we realize that judge is a job. Like advocate is a job. Like a doctor does his job. Like a teacher does his job. Judge does his job.

[00:13:52] Respect, of course respect. Respect, we do respect our teachers, don't we? We do should respect our judges. But that's where it starts, that's where it ends. Else, you will find more Yeshwandvarmas. Else, you will find more Yeshwandvarmas committing a crime and getting away with it. My question to the government is, is impeachment all? If he is impeached, that is,

[00:14:21] assuming that he is impeached, assuming that he would be impeached. Is that it? What about ED inquiry on him? What about CBI inquiry on him? What about jailing, putting him behind bars? What about police inquiry on him? This man's house, you know, when the fire happened, police had gone to this judge's house. Now, look at the way our system functions and the reason I am kind of speaking to you. Police had gone to his residence. The police

[00:14:51] was told to go back by his assistant, not him, his assistant, saying that I have been a call away out. You see, in a circumstance like this, when there is fire and all of that, there is something called a spot panchanama which the police has to do. Where they catch five witnesses and they say that possibly if there was a spot panchanama in that particular residence, on that particular day, like it would have happened for any normal, ordinary human being,

[00:15:20] the police would have possibly mentioned this 15 crores lying in his house. But the police was asked to go back and the police went back. The police came back the next day. Even the next day, the police was not entertained. The police were not allowed to go and investigate. Which means, imagine if it was not fire, it was a murder and police comes in, will they be asked to go back and say call out?

[00:15:50] And the police went back. Why is Delhi police not investigating that? So the fact remains that somewhere down the line, I think, while the government may use this opportunity to kind of re-emphasize that NJAC should be implemented, I am sure about that, the judiciary will be feeling very happy that they have nailed one of their own and

[00:16:20] then see how good, how transparent we are and we impeach them. If at all, he is impeached or at least the judiciary has done their job of writing to the prime minister and the president asking them to impeach this person, asking them to remove this person, the justice system has done their job. Fair. But, end of the day, my point still remains that this is not the solution. A judge is like any other citizen of

[00:16:50] this country. The concept of democracy. There is no special citizen. There is no big citizen and small citizen. There is nothing like that in a democracy. We are same. We are one. Everybody's rights, responsibilities, duties, same, including a judge. Till such time that that is not emphasized, till such time that that particular feeling doesn't percolate to a normal bureaucracy,

[00:17:20] judiciary, executive, and common people, there will be thousands of Yeshwant Verma in this country. One Yeshwant Verma got caught. Again, thanks to Lord Almighty. One Yeshwant Verma got caught and hundreds of Yeshwant Verma are operating in India even today. That's the point I want to make till I see you next time. That's tomorrow. Then

[00:17:50] Namaskar.