SC to decide on all cases related to death of Justice Loya

The apex court fixed the first week of February for further hearing in the case related with the death of Justice Loya.

The Supreme Court's decision comes after it heard pleas filed by three petitioners seeking SIT probe in Justice Loya death case.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud also said an appropriate bench of the apex court would hear the petitions filed by Congress leader Tehseen Poonawalla and Maharashtra journalist B S Lone.

"I'm hopeful the decision will be in our favour. I believe justice will be served to Justice Loya. We demand that the case be heard in an independent organisation," Lone was reported to have pleadede before the court.

"List the matters on January 22, 2018, before the appropriate bench as per the roster," the CJI's bench said.

A bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra had, on 16 January, ordered the matters to be listed before an appropriate bench and had not fixed any specific date for hearing.

It had left it to the Maharashtra government to decide which documents, relating to Loya's death, could be handed over to the petitioners.

The state government, which had filed documents in a sealed cover relating to special CBI judge B H Loya's death, had during the hearing opposed the petitioners' demand that the entire material should be handed over to them for perusal.

"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," the apex court had said in its 16 January order.

The assignment of the case to the bench hearing the PILs was one of the disputes raised by the four dissenting judges during a rare press conference on 12 January.

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

BJP President along with Rajasthan home minister Gulabchand Kataria, Rajasthan-based businessman Vimal Patni, former Gujarat police chief P C Pande, Additional Director General of Police Geeta Johri and Gujarat police officers Abhay Chudasama and N K Amin, have already been discharged in the case.