New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday pronounced a unanimous judgement on the judge Loya death case and dismissed the petition for lack of merit.
The apex court said that there will be no independent probe in the case. The petitions challenged the “natural death” angle in the case.
Justice DY Chandrachud while pronouncing the judgement said that there is no reason to doubt statements of 4 judges. He said the judges were with Justice Loya at all times, omitting the scope of foul play.
The Supreme Court also said that there is a need to discourage motivated petitions.
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“Frivolous petitions should not be encouraged. Petitioners tried to make it seem like they were for the investigation but are against the judiciary,” said the apex court.
The Supreme Court was hearing a batch of pleas seeking an independent probe into the alleged mysterious death of Judge Loya.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud had on March 16 reserved the judgement on the pleas.
The Maharashtra government had argued in the apex court that all pleas seeking an independent probe into Loya’s death were motivated and aimed at targeting “one individual” in the guise of upholding the rule of law.
It had come down heavily on alleged accusations, bullying and browbeating of judges in the top court by some activist lawyers in the Loya case and said that the judiciary and judicial officers need to be saved from such averments.
Meanwhile, those seeking an independent probe into the matter had referred to the sequence of events to highlight that a fair investigation was needed to rule out any foul play in the death.
The issue of Loya’s death had come under spotlight in November last year after media reports quoting his sister had fuelled suspicion about the circumstances surrounding it and its link to the Sohrabuddin case. But Loya’s son had on January 14 said in Mumbai that his father had died of natural causes.
A batch of pleas, including those filed by Congress leader Tehseen Poonawala and Maharashtra-based B S Lone, was filed in the top court seeking an independent probe into Loya’s death in 2014.
Four senior-most apex court judges — Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, M B Lokur and Kurian Joseph — at their January 12 press conference had questioned the manner in which sensitive cases were being allocated and Loya’s case was one of them.