Stormy scenes as Supreme Court hears Loya case

NEWDELHI: The first hearing of the Loya case by the Chief Justice’s bench in the Supreme Court witnessed high drama, with senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for an association of lawyers from Mumbai that has filed one of the petitions seeking a probe into the death of special CBI court judge BH Loya, alleging that documents submitted by the Maharashtra government on the case were incomplete, and also taking issue with senior advocate Harish Salve appearing for the state government in the case.

The three-judge bench headed by CJI Dipak Misra on Monday also transferred to itself the two public interest litigations pending in the Bombay HC seeking further probe into the death of Judge Loya, with the assurance that it shall examine all documents relating to his death “with

THE BENCH HEADED BY CJI ALSO TRANSFERRED TO ITSELF THE TWO PILs PENDING IN THE BOMBAY HC SEEKING FURTHER PROBE INTO LOYA DEATH

utmost seriousness”.

The SC began hearing in the case, seen as the trigger for four senior judges — Justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, MB Lokur and Kurian Joseph — and to publicly criticise the CJI on January 12 for allocating important cases to junior judges, after it was transferred from the bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra.

Dave said the documents shared by the Maharashtra government, as instructed by Justice Mishra on January 16, were incomplete, and that documents obtained under the RTI Act show that there were suspicious circumstances attached to Judge Loya’s death. “We want an independent probe because it’s about the death of a judge,” he said.

Dave also made an argument against Salve appearing for the Maharashtra government. Dave asserted that Salve had represented Amit Shah in the Sohrabuddin case and he could not now appear for the Maharashtra government. Judge Loya, who was presiding over the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case, died in Nagpur on December 1, 2014.

Shah, now BJP president, was named in the case, although, in late December 2014, a special CBI court judge discharged him.

On Monday, the Maharashtra government produced statements of four district judges, two of whom have since been appointed as judges in the Bombay HC, stating that Loya died of a heart attack and it was they who had taken him to hospital.

It also dismissed allegations of foul play.

Justice DY Chandrachud, one of the judges on the bench, sought to restore normalcy to the proceedings after heated exchanges between Dave and Salve and said: “This is a serious case. Let’s all look at the documents and hear the case objectively and dispassionately.” Responding to Dave’s objection to Salve appearing for the state, he added: “We are all keepers of our own conscience. We cannot tell a lawyer to appear or not to appear.”

Meanwhile, lawyers Indira Jaising, appearing for civil society activists wishing to intervene in the case, attracted the CJI’s ire by claiming the bench was trying to “gag the press”. “We have not said anything. How can you say we are gagging the press? You must apologise,” the CJI said after which Jaising apologised.

The Supreme Court adjourned the hearing in the case to February 2 and asked all parties to file documents relating to Judge Loya’s death in the apex court.

While hearing the case on January 16, Justice Mishra had asked for it to be listed before an “appropriate bench”, triggering speculation that he was not going to hear the case anymore. A day earlier on January 15, he had broken down at a customary morning tea meeting of judges of the apex court, claiming that the alle-