A fire at Justice Yashwant Varma's Delhi residence accidentally revealed stacks of ₹500 notes 1.5 feet high. He then resigned just before Parliament could impeach him — preserving his pension, which is apparently harder to burn than cash.
When firefighters rushed to a blaze at Justice Yashwant Varma's official Delhi bungalow on Holi 2025, they expected smoke damage — not large quantities of burnt and partially burnt ₹500 notes piled 1.5 feet high. A Supreme Court three-judge panel found he and his family had 'covert or active control' over the storeroom containing the cash. His defense — that adversaries planted the money — was examined and rejected. As impeachment proceedings gathered momentum in Parliament, Justice Varma tendered his resignation on April 9, 2026, citing 'personal reasons,' which technically halted the proceedings since you can only impeach a sitting judge. The pension stays. The cash doesn't.