New Delhi: Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Tuesday (August 12) announced the formation of a three-member panel to probe the alleged discovery of a large amount of cash from a room damaged by fire on the premises of then sitting Delhi high court judge, Justice Yashwant Varma’s official residence.Birla said that the panel will include Justice Arvind Kumar of the Supreme Court, Madras high court Chief Justice Maninder Mohan Srivastava and senior advocate B.V. Acharya of the Karnataka high court.“On July 31, 2025, I received a written notice by Ravishankar Prasad and also signed by 146 members of the house including the Leader of the Opposition. The notice proposes a motion to remove the current judge of the Allahabad high court, Justice Yashwant Varma, under Section 3 of the Judges Inquiry Act, 1968, read with Articles 124(4), 217, and 218 of the Constitution of India,” said Birla.Section 3 of The Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968 states that if notice is given of a motion for presenting an address to the president for the removal of a judge, it needs to be supported by signatures of not less than 100 members in the Lok Sabha and, in case such a notice is given in the Rajya Sabha, not less than 50 members of the upper house. If the motion is admitted, the speaker in the Lok Sabha or the chairman of the Rajya Sabha, as the case may be, will constitute a three-member committee. The committee shall comprise one judge from the Supreme Court, one from the high courts and a jurist.“The committee will submit its report as early as possible. The proposal remains pending till the receipt of the report of the inquiry committee,” said Birla.The formation of the inquiry panel comes just days after the Supreme Court earlier this week dismissed a writ petition filed by Justice Varma, who is now a judge in the Allahabad high court, against the in-house inquiry committee’s report indicting him in the case where cash was allegedly found at his official residence.The panel comprising Punjab and Haryana high court chief Justice Sheel Nagu, Himachal Pradesh high court chief Justice G.S. Sandhawalia and Karnataka high court Justice Anu Sivaraman found “strong inferential evidence” of the judge’s “covert or active control” over the cash. Former Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna had also decided to make the report public and recommended Justice Varma’s resignation. But Justice Varma, who was transferred back to the Allahabad high court by then, refused.Notice in the Rajya SabhaWhile Birla announced the formation of a committee to probe the allegations against Justice Verma, no mention has been made in parliament of a similar notice that had been moved against Allahabad high court judge, Justice Shekhar Yadav. This, despite then Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar informing the Rajya Sabha on July 21 that he had received two notices – one for the removal of Justice Verma and another against Justice Yadav.The Wire had reported that opposition members had moved a notice against Justice Yadav after he delivered a communal speech endorsing extremist Hindutva views at an event organised by the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) on December 8. Dhankhar’s also mentioned last month that he had received a notice seeking Justice Yadav’s removal. The notice had been signed by 55 members but Dhankar had found that one member had signed in two places, which the member had then denied. He also said that he will discuss the matter with floor leaders of the House “with respect to such transgressions” hours before stepping down as Vice President.Congress MP Jairam Ramesh said that Dhankhar’s remarks in the Rajya Sabha remain in parliamentary records and are yet to be expunged.