Judge Loya death: SC dismisses review petition

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea seeking review of its April 19 verdict that had held that Special CBI judge B H Loya had died of “natural causes” on December 1, 2014, and had rejected PILS seeking a SIT probe into the death, questioning their motive.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud did not find any merit in the review petition filed by Bombay Lawyers Association, one of the petitioners in the case.

“We have carefully gone through the review petition and the connected papers, but we see no reason to interfere with the order impugned. The review petition is, accordingly, dismissed,” the bench said.

The apex court had rejected the PILS seeking probe into the death of Loya, ruling that he had died of “natural causes”, and held that the petitions were moved by political rivals to settle scores which were a serious attempt to scandalise the judiciary and obstruct the course of justice through a “frontal attack” on its independence.

Loya, who was hearing the high-profile Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, had died of cardiac arrest in Nagpur on December 1, 2014, when he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague’s daughter.

Sohrabuddin Sheikh, a suspected gangster, and his wife Kausar Bi were allegedly abducted and killed by a team of Gujarat and Rajasthan Police in November 2005.

The CBI filed a charge sheet against 38 persons for the alleged fake encounters.

The apex court had brought the curtains down on raging debate over Loya’s death, saying: “We have concluded that there is absolutely no merit in the writ petitions. There is no reason for the court to doubt the clear and consistent statements of the four judicial officers.

The CJI was attacked by four fellow apex court judges led by Justice J Chelameswar in an unprecedented presser on January 12 over the allocation of cases, and the hearing of the Loya matter was one of the contentious issues.