Post top judge’s dissent, CJI to hear Justice Loya death case on Monday

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra will hear on Monday two petitions seeking independent probe into the death of Special CBI Court judge B. M. Loya who was holding trial in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh staged shoot out case.

The supplementary cause list issued on Saturday lists the petitions by social activist Tehseen Poonawala and Maharashtra-based journalist Bandhuraj Sambhaji Lone before the bench of Chief Justice Misra, Justice A. M. Khanwilkar and Justice D. Y. Chandrachud.

The top court had asked the Maharashtra government earlier in the month to submit the postmortem report of the CBI judge who had died under mysterious circumstances in 2014, asserting that the “matter was very serious.”

The allocation of Judge Loya’s matter to a relatively junior bench was one of the bones of contention raised by four rebel judges in their unprecedented press conference on January 12.

The bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra on January 17 recused itself from hearing the matter after the bench directed that all the documents furnished by the Maharashtra government to the court relating to the death of Judge Loya be shared with the petitioners seeking independent probe.

The case came into limelight as BJP president Amit Shah was allegedly one of the accused in the case. Shah was later discharged by the Special CBI court trying the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case.

Agencies input