JUDGEMENT WATCH – JUDGE LOYA CASE

 

In June 2014, Brijgopal Harkishan Loya was appointed the judge in the special CBI court in Mumbai. He presided over the  Sohrabuddin case, in which the president of  Bharatiya Janata Party, Amit Shah was the prime accused.

 

Justice Loya died on the intervening night between 30 November and 1 December 2014. The media reported that the judge died of a heart attack.  Loya’s family remained silent after his death and nothing was reported or heard from them. In November 2016, Loya’s niece, Nupur Balaprasad Biyani, approached the journalist Niranjan Takle. Takle had several meetings between November 2016 and November 2017, with her mother, father, medical doctor who treated Justice Loya on the day of his death. Several disturbing questions emerged about Loya’s death from the meetings; questions about inconsistencies in the reported account of the death; about the procedures followed after the judge died; and about the condition of his body when it was handed over to the family.

 

The family also described the pressures and inducements Loya faced while presiding over the Sohrabuddin trial. According to Biyani, Loya confided in her that Mohit Shah,  The then  chief justice of the Bombay High Court offered Loya “a bribe of 100 crore in return for a favorable judgment.” Though Loya’s family asked for an inquiry commission to probe his death, none was ever set up.

 

On 20^th November 2017,  Niranjan Takle of Caravan Magazine published a detail report on the disturbing and mysterious circumstances surrounding Loya’s death. Read the Caravan article in the below link :

 

A Family Breaks Its Silence: Shocking details emerge in death of judge presiding over Sohrabuddin trial

 

On 21^st November 2017 Niranjan Takle of Caravan Magazine published a detail report on the pressures Loya faced while presiding over the Sohrabuddin trial here. Read the Caravan article in the below link :

 

Chief Justice Mohit Shah offered Rs 100 crore to my brother for a favourable judgment in the Sohrabuddin case: Late Judge Loya’s sister

 

 

 

On 22^nd November 2017  Former Bombay High Court Judge, Justice (Retd.) B.H. Marlapalle has written to Chief Justice of Bombay High Court, Justice Manjula Chellur, seeking an SIT probe into allegations of foul play in the death of Brijgopal Harkishan Loya
https://www.livelaw.in/judge-loyas-death-former-bombay-hc-judge-seeks-sit-probe-assure-subordinate-judges-not-orphans/

 

On 24^th November 2017 Former Navy Chief writes to CJI to initiate a high level inquiry into the suspicious death of Judge Loya.

The copy of his letter is attached below.

 

 

Number of writ petitions , PILs and Intervening Petitions were also filed in  Supreme Court which were all combined together as a joint petition and was allotted to a bench of junior judges like Justice Arun Mishra and Justice D.Y.Chandrachud while it wasn’t allotted to the senior judges. Regarding this on 12^th January Four Senior most judges of the Supreme Court attended a press conference which was an unprecedented move raising concerns over the allotment of Loya case.

 

And all those petitions were heard together and finally the Supreme Court dismissed all the petitions and gave a judgment which is considered to be incorrect. The pdf of judgment is attached here

 

 

 

The Judgment was criticized by many lawyers, activist, politicians and legal luminaries across the country. Justice A.P.Shah calls the judgment as utterly wrong and jurisprudentially incorrect.  Here is the link to his complete speech.

 

Loya Case Judgment Is Utterly Wrong And Jurisprudentially Incorrect On So Many Counts: Justice AP Shah

 

Bombay Lawyers Association filed a review petition which was listed in Supreme Court and was dismissed by the same.