New Delhi, Aug. 13 -- The Lok Sabha on Tuesday formed a three-member committee to probe the charges against former Delhi high court Judge Yashwant Varma, setting the stage for his impeachment in Parliament. Supreme Court judge Arvind Kumar, chief justice of Madras high court Manindra Mohan Srivastava and jurist BV Acharya from Karnataka will be the members of the panel, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla announced after he accepted the notice for impeachment signed by 146 Lok Sabha lawmakers. While the Opposition MPs had given a similar notice in the Rajya Sabha, which was received by former Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, there was no mention of it by Birla, signalling that only Lok Sabha, without collaboration with the Upper House, has formed the three-member probe panel, establishing the Lower House's primary jurisdiction in the issue. In the Lok Sabha, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, former Union ministers and BJP members Anurag Thakur, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Rajiv Pratap Rudy and PP Chaudhary signed the notice. NCP(SP) leader Supriya Sule and Congress MP and Public Accounts Committee chairman KC Venugopal are among the leaders who signed the notice, officials said. A huge controversy erupted days after a huge stash of cash was discovered after a fire broke out at the residence of justice Varma, then a judge of the Delhi high court, on March 14, when he was away on a Holi break. His personal secretary had alerted the fire department. The cash discovery row led to several steps, including a preliminary inquiry by Delhi high court chief justice DK Upadhyaya, judicial work being taken away from Justice Varma in the Delhi high court, and later his transfer to his parent Allahabad high court sans judicial work. A committee of three high court judges appointed by then Chief Justice of India Sanjeev Khanna had indicted him. Justice Khanna referred the matter to President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, recommending Varma's removal after he refused to resign. A motion to remove a judge must be signed by not less than 100 MPs in the Lok Sabha. To pass an impeachment motion, the proposal has to be supported by a majority of the total membership of that House and by a majority of not less than two-third of the members of the House present and voting in both House. With the reference of the formation of the probe panel coming on the last day of the monsoon session, the panel will get time till the winter session to submit its report. The impeachment process is expected to be taken up during the next session. Varma also has the option to resign at any stage and avoid his public trial in Parliament. In September 2011, Calcutta High Court judge Soumitra Sen had resigned a day before the Lok Sabha was set to take up the hearing, following the Rajya Sabha's approval for his impeachment. In his speech, Birla mentioned that wades of cash was found at Varma's residence and that then CJI Sanjiv Khanna had formed an in-house panel of the Supreme Court which submitted its findings to the President of India and the Prime Minister. Then CJI Sanjeev Khanna had constituted a three-member panel of senior judges on May 22 to conduct an inquiry into the allegations against Justice Varma, who was in Delhi High Court at that time. The report was submitted to the President of India Droupadi Murmu. Senior Lok Sabha officials said that following the notice of the MPs, the Presiding Officer of the House (in case of Lok Sabha, it will be Birla) will first verify the signatures-a process that involves the Speaker's office verifying with individual MPs that the signature indeed belongs to him or her. Calcutta High Court judge Soumitra Sen was the first judge in Independent India to be impeached in the Rajya Sabha. But he resigned before the Lok Sabha was scheduled to discuss his impeachment. In 1993, Parliament witnessed the first impeachment motion against a sitting judge when the Lok Sabha debated on the proposal to impeach Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana V Ramaswamy. The motion failed as a requisite number of MPs didn't vote. For removal of a Justice Varma, the provisions of clauses (4) and (5) of article 124 shall apply in relation to a High Court as they apply in relation to the Supreme Court with the substitution of references to the High Court for references to the Supreme Court. Birla referred to Article 124 which says, "A Judge of the Supreme Court shall not be removed from his office except by an order of the President passed after an address by each House of Parliament supported by a majority of the total membership of that House and by a majority of not less than two-third of the members of the House present and voting has been presented to the President in the same session for such removal on the ground of proved misbehavior or incapacity."...