Give docs on Loya death to independent probe seekers: SC to Maha govt

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Maharashtra government to give all documents pertaining to the death of Justice B H Loya to petitioners seeking an independent probe into the circumstances of the death of the CBI special judge.

The Supreme Court observed that it "was a matter where the petitioners should know everything".

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and M M Shantanagoudar passed the direction after the Maharashtra government submitted before the court documents, including Loya's postmortem report, in a sealed cover.

Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Maharashtra, told the bench that documents contained certain confidential material which cannot be shared in public and they cannot be given to petitioners.

The bench directed that all the documents be given to the petitioners within a week.

The counsel for the petitioners told the bench that they needed to look into these documents to argue the matter.

The petitioners in the case are Maharashtra-based journalist BR Lone and Congress leader Tehseen Poonawalla.

The petitioners' counsel assured the court that they would not make any of the documents public.

The bench adjourned the hearing for after a week without specifying any dates.

The matter which was listed for hearing on Monday was postponed to Tuesday as Justice Shantanagouder was on leave on Monday.

The Supreme Court on Friday termed as a "serious matter" the issue of alleged mysterious death of special CBI judge BH Loya and sought response from Maharashtra government on pleas seeking an independent probe into it.

The top court said, "This matter requires bi-parte hearing rather than exparte".

The apex court on Friday also asked the Maharasthra government to file the autopsy report into the death of former CBI judge BH Loya who died in mysterious circumstances in December 2014.

At the time of his death, Loya was presiding over the CBI court hearing the alleged Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case. He died of cardiac arrest on December 1, 2014, according to hospital records, a day after he attended the wedding ceremony and reception of the daughter of fellow Judge Sapna Josh.

In an unprecedented move in the annals of judiciary, four senior most judges of the Supreme Court on Friday questioned the “unilateral and biased” decisions of the Chief justice of India Dipak Misra in the allocation of “important” cases to junior judges.

They said though they wrote a seven-page letter to the CJI two months ago (on allocation of work), the allocation of two petitions on Friday seeking a probe into the death of former CBI sessions judge BH Loya who discharged BJP President Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case, to a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra (number 10 in the rank) triggered the controversy.