New Delhi: Days after the matter of ‘jute sacks full of cash’ being found at a Delhi High Court judge’s residence came up in Parliament, TMC MP Mahua Moitra accused the Modi government of laying the groundwork to exercise ‘total control over judicial appointments’.
Moitra while speaking on The Finance Bill, 2025, said she was digressing to speak on an issue ‘which has immense controversy and intrigue attached’ to it. “…no amount of money, apportioned to the judiciary will be of any avail, unless its independent character is zealously guarded. This is something that we in this House must be allowed to raise.”
The Trinamool MP from Krishnanagar in West Bengal said in the Lok Sabha that she was ‘taking a cue’ from Prime Minister Narendra Modi who “so effectively managed to speak about ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ when asked a pointed question by the US media about crony capitalists and their accountability to the law”.
Moitra then went on to talk about the “bundles of currency notes discovered in the outhouse of” Justice Yashwant Varma of the Delhi High Court.
Mark my words. This Govt & its Godi Media are laying ground for doing away with collegium system in favour of NJAC type total govt control over judicial appointments. Much like EC’s de-fanging. pic.twitter.com/UBId9CWpCR
— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) March 24, 2025
The veracity of the incident is still being assessed, she said, “but the godi media has gone to town debating whether appointment of judges and how the government of the day must have a preponderant say, in the appointment process”. She cited the example of Rhea Chakraborty to emphasise how “an innocent woman was vilified by the godi media”.
“Mark my words, just like the Election Commission has been emasculated by the government takeover of its appointments process, this brouhaha and media plants are the beginning of an effort to bring back something like the NJAC with complete government control and do away with the Collegium system,” Moitra said in her speech.
“Now you see this media are trying to mahaul banao (trying to create an atmosphere), they’re trying to tow the government line to suborn the higher judiciary, someone who cannot be named in this House; who presides over a neighboring chamber, has already added his two cents and said how he thinks that the government should do away with the Collegium system,” she added.
Moitra’s remark was an apparent reference to Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar who is ex officio chairman of the Rajya Sabha. Dhankhar has on more than one occasion made a case to revive the idea of a National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC), which was declared unconstitutional by a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in 2015 which ruled in favour of continuing with the Collegium system instead.
On 21 March, after the issue concerning Justice Varma surfaced, Dhankhar, referring to the NJAC Act passed by Parliament in 2014, had said he would hold talks with the Leader of the House and the Opposition to find a mechanism for a “structured discussion” on the issue.
On Monday, Dhankhar lauded Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna for handling the Justice Yashwant Varma issue in a “transparent, accountable manner”.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
Also Read: Judge cash row: ‘Warrants deeper probe’—read Delhi HC chief justice’s full report to CJI
