“If the event had taken place at his (common man’s) house, the speed would have been an electronic rocket. Now it is not even a cattle cart,” Dhankhar said.

He also said the independence of the judiciary is not some kind of “impregnable cover” against inquiry, investigation and probe, and asserted that the surest way to degenerate an institution or an individual is to give a total guarantee against probes.

The Supreme Court ordered an in-house probe into the alleged discovery of half-burnt wads of cash from Justice Yashwant Varma’s residence after a fire on the night of Holi on March 14. Justice Varma has now been repatriated from the Delhi High Court to his parent high court of Allahabad.