Supreme Court rules out probe into Judge Loya’s death: Key highlights of judgement

The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a batch of pleas seeking an independent probe into the mysterious death of special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) judge B H Loya, who was hearing the high-profile Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case involving Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Amit Shah.

Loya had on December 1, 2014 died of cardiac arrest in Nagpur, where he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague's daughter.

Further, the apex court said that the submissions of the petitioners prima facie amounted to criminal contempt of court but that it was not initiating contempt proceedings.

Here’s what the Supreme Court said:

The Supreme Court said that attempts were made to scandalise the judiciary by levelling serious allegations against judicial officers and judges of the Bombay High Court.

There is no reason to doubt statements of four judges on circumstances leading to the death of Loya and the documents placed on record and their scrutiny establishes that Loya’s death was due to natural cause, the bench said.

The apex court said frivolous and motivated litigation has been filed to settle political rivalry. The judges also discussed the increasing instances of misuse of public interest litigations and said the present petitions seemed to be a case in point.

The judgment said even two judges of the SC bench which heard the petitions were not spared by the petitioners. Serious attacks were also made on the credibility of two Bombay High Court judges.

The issue of Judge Loya’s death had come under the spotlight in November last year after media reports quoting his sister had fuelled suspicion about circumstances surrounding it and its link to the Sohrabuddin case. However, Loya’s son had on January 14 said in Mumbai that his father had died of natural causes.