SC to hear on Monday PILs seeking probe into Judge Loya's death; bench to be headed by CJI

 The Supreme Court today decided to hear on Monday the pleas seeking an independent probe into the alleged mysterious death of special CBI judge B H Loya.

The top court fixed January 22 for the hearing and directed listing of petitions before "an appropriate bench". A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud said an appropriate bench of the apex court would hear the petitions filed by Congress leader Tehseen Poonawalla and Maharashtra journalist BS Lone. The counsel for the petitioners said they wanted clarification on the date of hearing of the petition in the wake of the order passed by a bench of Justices Arun Mishra and M M Shantanagoudar.

"List the matters on January 22, 2018, before the appropriate bench as per the roster," the CJI's bench said. A bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra had on January 16, ordered the matters to be listed before an appropriate bench and had not fixed any specific date for hearing. It had left it to the Maharashtra government to decide which documents, relating to Loya's death, could be handed over to the petitioners. The state government, which had filed documents in a sealed cover relating to Loya's death, had during the hearing opposed the petitioners' demand that the entire material should be handed over to them for perusal.

The apex court, in its January 16, order said, "Let the documents be placed on record within seven days and if it is considered appropriate, copies be furnished to the petitioners. Put up before the appropriate bench".
The case, whose assignment to the bench hearing the PILs was a bone of contention of the unprecedented press conference by four senior-most judges of the apex court on January 12. Loya, who was hearing the sensitive Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case, had allegedly died of cardiac arrest in Nagpur on December 1, 2014, when he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague's daughter.

In the encounter case, the BJP President along with Rajasthan Home Minister Gulabchand Kataria, Rajasthan-based businessman Vimal Patni, former Gujarat police chief P C Pande, Additional Director General of Police Geeta Johri and Gujarat police officers Abhay Chudasama and N K Amin, have already been discharged. The issue of Loya's death had come under the spotlight in November last year after media reports quoting his sister had fuelled suspicion about the circumstances surrounding his death and its link to the Sohrabuddin case.

However, Loya's son had on January 14 said in Mumbai that his father died of natural causes and not under suspicious circumstances. The court had earlier termed as "serious matter" the issue of Loya's death and had asked Maharashtra government to file certain documents, including the autopsy report. The counsel for petitioners had told the court that this was a case of alleged mysterious death of a judge, who was hearing a sensitive case, and an independent probe was required.

In his plea, he had claimed that circumstances revolving around the death of the judge were "questionable, mysterious and contradicting". A PIL seeking probe into the judge's death was also filed before the Bombay High Court on January 8 by the Bombay Lawyers' Association. The Indian judiciary was thrown into a turmoil on January 12, when four senior apex court judges, Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, M B Lokur and Kurian Joseph, had convened an unprecedented press conference raising some issues, including "selective" allocation of cases by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. The cases indicated by them included this case.