The fire in a judge’s home has not only torched the reputation of its occupant – a sitting Delhi High Court judge – but is in danger of blackening the credibility of the judiciary.

One would have thought that the discovery of cash, much, if not all of it, allegedly unaccounted for, would have caused the Chief Justice of India (CJI) to hold an open and eminently transparent inquiry.

But that didn’t happen.

What we got was an inexplicable decision. The Supreme Court Collegium (the CJI-led five judge highest decision-making body of the Apex Court) transferred Justice Varma back to his parent court — the Allahabad High Court. A move that greatly agitated the Allahabad High Court bar association which within hours, in a break from the norm, wrote a stinker to the Supreme Court asking it not to treat it like a “trash can" — an ostensible dumping ground for tarnished judges. The seeming attempt by the Supreme Court at brushing the matter under the carpet prompted a withering public........

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