Advocate Karan Umesh Salvi Named Consultant for Justice Varma Impeachment Probe

New Legal Consultant Appointed to High-Profile Judicial Probe

Advocate Karan Umesh Salvi has been recruited as a consultant to the special inquiry committee in a high-profile judicial investigation in a major update. This committee is charged with the responsibility of looking into some of the serious allegations brought about against Justice Yashwant Varma.  Mr. The involvement of Salvi is an important process towards enhancing the legal capacities of the panel in the future.

The fact that he was appointed, starting October 17, 2025, brings even more legal experience to the case. Mr. Salvi will be joined by two other legal consultants Rohan Singh and Sameeksha Dua who were employed last month to help the panel.

According to the official order, the period of Mr. Salvi will be co-terminus to the committee. This is to mean that he will be on service till the investigation is complete and final report presented or to the extent further orders are given. He is specifically assigned to facilitate the overall operations of the committee by offering expert legal advice on how to address the technical constitutional and procedural issues that are likely to emerge in the course of such a rare process.

The legal fraternity has observed the move as an indication that the investigation is entering an urgent stage. Advocate Salvi as a consultant will not belong to the committee as such but will be under its directive. He will assist the panel in structuring evidence, drafting legal briefs, and making sure that legal procedural standards are adhered to to the latter.

This is one of the developments that are contained in a bigger formal process started by the Indian Parliament. The investigation is also one of the very few that happened in the history of India when a serving judge undergoes a formal inquiry that may result in impeachment. Such seriousness of the situation demands a good support system to the investigating committee, and this aspect is addressed by the appointment of Mr. Salvi.

The Origins of the Impeachment Inquiry

The case being investigated is on Justice Yashwant Varma who is a present day Allahabad High Court judge. Those charges against him are based on an outrageous event that took place earlier this year on March 14, 2025. Justice Varma was the judge of the Delhi High Court then. There was a fire in his official residence in the national capital and during the effort to put off the fire a great amount of money was reportedly found by firefighters.

The incident has been reported to have found large piles of burned and partly burnt currency notes. This finding instantly created a big controversy and people raised serious questions about judicial propriety and corruption. The case soon got out of hand, and it attracted the attention of the topmost judicial system in India. Justice Varma has never confessed to have done anything wrong with reference to the cash discovered at his house.

An in-house investigation was started in the Supreme Court of India following the incident. This in-house investigation, by a judge panel, reviewed the events leading to the finding of the cash. The results of the panel that were reported to the Chief Justice of India were incriminating. It allegedly charged Justice Varma and advised that formal charges be brought against him to have him removed out of his office.

This was a judiciary internal mechanism type of recommendation which formed the foundation of action by parliament. Justice Varma was again moved to his parent high court in Allahabad after the in-house report. A request by the judge to overturn the finding of the in-house panel was rejected by the Supreme Court, and the case went on.

The controversy had since shifted to the legislative branch to the judicial branch. On August 12, 2025, . This was following a motion signed by 146 Members of Parliament of the different parties to have his impeachment proceeded. This general support of the motion indicated how serious the legislature took the claims.

Structure of the Judges (Inquiry) Committee

The committee which is presently in the service of Advocate Salvi is not a mere one. It is a court of high degree which comprises of Lok Sabha Speaker by the authority of Judges (Inquiry) Act of 1968. This particular law provides the exact course that should be taken when some allegations of misconduct or incapacity are made against a judge of the Supreme Court or a High Court.

This three-member committee is the step required after an impeachment motion has been admitted in Parliament. The Act is very specific about the composition of the committee to make it independent and comprise legal knowledge. It should have a sitting judge of Supreme Court, a Chief Justice of a High Court, and an eminent jurist. Any decision made by this committee is binding and lays the foundation of further action by Parliament.

In this particular instance, the panel constituted by Speaker Om Birla consists of very reputed personalities in the Indian judiciary. Justice Aravind Kumar, who is also a sitting Supreme Court judge in India, is the chairperson of the committee. The second judge is Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava, who is the Chief Justice of Madras high court.

The third member who indeed plays the role of the eminent jurist is Senior Advocate B.V. Acharya. Mr. Acharya is a very reputed lawyer who is well versed with the law. The experience of the three members combined together gives them the required authority and legal expertise to carry out such a sensitive investigation. This committee in effect serves as a court and it is at liberty to collect evidence, interview witnesses and lay out certain charges.