NEW DELHI : The Supreme Court on Monday said it would dispassionately examine the circumstances surrounding the death of CBI judge B.H. Loya and reach its own objective conclusion. The court called the controversy over the death a “serious issue” and urged for a sense of objectivity.
Addressing fears that the media might be gagged, Chief Justice Dipak Misra said the Supreme Court would “never gag the press.”A Bench of Chief Justice Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud transferred two PIL petitions on Loya’s death, pending before the Bombay High Court, to itself.

The Bench restrained other High Courts from entertaining any petition in connection with Loya’s death.It allowed both the Maharashtra government and the petitioners — Maharashtra-based journalist B.R. Lone and activist Tehseen Poonawala — to place on record additional documents.

Maharashtra produced documents containing the statements of four district judges, two who went on to be High Court judges. They had stated that Loya died of cardiac arrest and they had taken him to hospital. The petitioners, in turn, submitted that they had accessed certain documents under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

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The bench also asked lawyers not to cast aspersions on BJP president Amit Shah, asserting that he is ‘not a party for before it’.
CJI Misra got angry when a senior woman lawyer inferred that the top court is going to gag the media. He asked her to retract her statement and apologise.
The apex court, in its January 16, order, had said, “Let the documents be placed on record within seven days and if it is considered appropriate, copies be furnished to the petitioners. Put up before the appropriate bench”.
Congress leader Tehseen Poonawalla and Maharashtra journalist BS Lone have filed petitions in the Supreme Court demanding orders be passed to conduct an independent probe into the case.

Loya, who was hearing the sensitive Sohrabuddin Sheikh 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. In the encounter case, BJP president Amit Shah along with Rajasthan Home Minister Gulabchand Kataria, Rajasthan-based businessman Vimal Patni, former Gujarat police chief PC Pande, Additional Director General of Police Geeta Johri and Gujarat police officers Abhay Chudasama and NK Amin, have already been discharged.
The issue of Loya’s death had come under the spotlight in November last year after media reports quoting his sister had fueled the suspicion about the circumstances surrounding his death and its link to the Sohrabuddin case.  However, Loya’s son had on January 14 said in Mumbai that his father died of natural causes and not under suspicious circumstances.
The case was earlier listed before a bench of justices Arun Mishra and MM Shantagoudar. This was believed to be one of the reasons for the virtual revolt by four senior-most apex court justices against the CJI.
Senior advocate Indira Jaising was also allowed to file an intervention application on behalf of certain social activists.“Let us look at the matter with a sense of objectivity. Of course, it is a serious issue. We have the records before us.

We will also look at records which you say were obtained through RTI, so that we have a consistent statement of what exactly happened. We cannot analyse merely on the basis of media reports,” Justice Chandrachud observed.
The Bench took exception to comments made by Mr. Dave about senior advocates Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Maharashtra government.
Mr. Dave said Mr. Salve had earlier appeared for BJP president Amit Shah, who was discharged as an accused in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case. This was the very case Loya was hearing when he died in December 2014.
Immediately, Ms. Jaising termed it as an attempt to gag the media. Mr. Dave also joined in to say that “entire institution is trying to protect one man.”