NEW DELHI: President Droupadi Murmu does not appear to have accepted the resignation of Justice Yashwant Varma who, faced with a removal motion after discovery of wads of unaccounted money in his official residence in Delhi, had put in papers nearly amonth ago. His name figures at serial number four of the list of judges in HC official portal and is preceded by Justices M C Tripathi, Arindam Sinha and Ranjan Roy. This is because apparently President Droupadi Murmu has not yet accepted his resignation from the post of HC judge. In his resignation letter dated Apr 9 addressed to the President, Justice Varma had said, “While I do not propose to burden your august office with the reasons which have constrained me to submit this missive, it is with deep anguish that I hereby tender my resignation from the office of the judge of Hon’ble High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, with immediate effect.” According to Article 217(1), a judge ceases to hold office if he/she resigns from office by sending a resignation letter “by writing under his hand addressed to the President.” A five-judge SC bench in the Gopal Chandra Misra case on Feb 15, 1978 addressed the issue of how the resignation of a judge comes into effect. It was unanimous that once the judge sends his resignation to the President, he is deemed to have ceased to be a judge. In this case, the judge had set a prospective date for his resignation to take effect and before the arrival of the date, he had withdrawn his resignation. The SC by four to one majority had ruled that as the resignation was prospective, the judge had every right to withdraw it prior to the appointed date. In contrast, Justice Varma’s resignation was categorical that it was “with immediate effect”. This means as per the mandate of Article 217 (1), he ceased to be a HC judge the moment his letter resigning with “immediate effect” was received by the President. Unnerved by evidence of eyewitnesses who doused a fire at his residence last year, Justice Varma saw the writing on the wall, withdrew from inquiry proceedings and resigned.
