New Delhi, July 29 -- The Supreme Court on Monday posed sharp questions to Justice Yashwant Varma over his challenge to an in-house judicial inquiry that found "strong inferential evidence" of his "covert or active control" over sacks of charred currency recovered from his official residence in Delhi, asking why he participated in the proceedings if he believed the process to be unconstitutional and tainted.

A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and AG Masih expressed reservations about both the procedural casualness of Justice Varma's petition and the timing of his legal challenge, noting that he could have approached the court earlier instead of waiting for the inquiry panel to conclude its findings and the then Chief Justice of India (CJ...