Faced with proceedings for his removal for misconduct over recovery of unaccounted half-burnt wads of cash from his official residence in Delhi on March 14 last year during a fire incident, Justice Yashwant Varma of the Allahabad High Court has submitted his resignation to President Droupadi Murmu.His April 9 resignation, if accepted by the President, would render the proceedings for his removal as a judge infructuous and he would join the league of tainted judges such as Calcutta High Court Judge Soumitra Sen and Sikkim High Court Chief Justice PD Dinakaran who chose to quit in the midst of removal proceedings. The resignation, however, makes him vulnerable to criminal proceedings as he loses the immunity enjoyed by constitutional court judges.Simultaneously, Justice Varma has also withdrawn from the ongoing inquiry conducted by a Lok Sabha-appointed panel under the Judges Inquiry Act, 1968, for his removal, saying his continued participation in it would legitimise an earlier inquiry, where he was asked to “answer the unanswerable” question on the source of money allegedly found from his Delhi residence when he was a judge of the Delhi High Court.“I withdraw with the deepest sadness, conscious of the gravity of my decision and with the hope that history will one day record the unfairness with which a sitting High Court Judge was treated and that has marked this entire episode from its inception,” Justice Varma wrote in his 13-page letter.The three-member committee was set up after Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla admitted a notice of motion moved by over 100 Lok Sabha MPs for Justice Varma’s removal as a High Court Judge to probe the allegations of misconduct against him.The committee consisted of Justice Aravind Kumar of the Supreme Court, Bombay High Court Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and senior advocate BV Acharya.In the letter addressed to the committee, Justice Varma expressed “profound anguish” over the course of the proceedings, saying continuing in the process would legitimise an unfair inquiry and the proceedings that had effectively reversed the burden of proof and denied him a reasonable opportunity to defend himself.Claiming to be a victim of a vilification campaign, Justice Varma said the incident related to a fire that occurred in a storeroom within his official residence during the Holi break in March 2025 when he and his spouse were away on vacation in a remote location with limited connectivity and he was informed about it only after it had been brought under control. He said he was not aware of the alleged discovery of cash at the premises until later.Questioning the procedural fairness of the committee’s proceedings, Justice Varma alleged that several witnesses who had given testimony favourable to him were dropped without explanation.Out of 54 witnesses examined earlier, 27 were dropped, including officials from the Delhi Fire Services and Delhi Police after cross-examination allegedly revealed facts inconsistent with the allegations, he said.In a setback to Justice Varma, the Supreme Court had on January 16 refused to interfere with the inquiry initiated by the Lok Sabha Speaker under the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968, for his removal as a judge.On March 22, 2025, then Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna had constituted a three-member committee to conduct an inquiry into discovery of unaccounted currency at Justice Varma’s Delhi residence on March 14, 2025. He was transferred from the Delhi High Court to the Allahabad High Court following the controversy.The then CJI Khanna had recommended his removal to the government after an in-house committee comprising Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice Sheel Nagu, Himachal Pradesh High Court Chief Justice GS Sandhawalia and Karnataka High Court judge Justice Anu Sivaraman indicted him for misconduct in its May 4, 2025, report.Allahabad High Court Bar Association president Rakesh Pande welcomed Justice Varma’s resignation, but said he should have taken the step earlier and put an end to needless controversy.