The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a bunch of petitions calling for an investigation into the death of CBI judge B. Loya's death while he was hearing a case against Amit Shah, the then home minister of Gujarat and current BJP president.
Shah, who was accused in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case in 2005, was exonerated later by a judge who took over the case after justice Loya's death.
According to official records, Loya died of cardiac arrest in Nagpur in 2014, a day after he attended the wedding and reception of his colleague's daughter. But family members of Loya raised doubts about his death .
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Petitions were filed in the Supreme Court seeking an independent probe.
The apex court had asked the Maharashtra Government to submit the postmortem report of the CBI judge, saying the "matter was very serious."
The apex court today said: "Documents placed on record and their scrutiny establishes that Judge Loya's death was due to 'natural cause'.
"The PILs were scandalous....without any truth and attempt was made to malign the judiciary," said the apex court bench headed by Dipak Misra.
The top court, which was critical of the petitioners and their lawyers for casting insinuations against the judicial officers and judges, said an attempt was made to cause prejudice against them and was a "vituperative assault on the judiciary."
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It said that with these petitions it becomes clear that "a real attempt and frontal attack" was made on the independence of judiciary and the present case was a manifestation to carry forward a personal agenda.
The petitioners had launched a veiled attempt to malign the judiciary and the credibility of judicial institutions was questioned, the three-judge bench said and criticised the attempts by senior advocates and activist lawyers Dushyant Dave, Indira Jaising and Prashant Bhushan to make insinuations against judges, including that of the apex court.
"Business rivalries have to be resolved in the market and political rivalries in the grand hall of democracy. It is the court's duty to protect the law," Justice Chandrachud, pronouncing the verdict for the bench, said.
It also took serious note of Bhushan's plea that two of its judges, Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, should recuse themselves from hearing the matter as they came from Maharashtra and must be knowing all judges of the Bombay High Court concerned with case.
The apex court said during arguments, counsel for petitioners forgot to maintain institutional civility towards judges and made wild allegations.
The top court said it thought of initiating contempt proceedings against petitioners but decided not to go ahead with it.
While relying on the statements and accounts of the four judges -- Shrikant Kulkarni and S M Modak, V C Barde and Roopesh Rathi -- relating to the death of the judge Loya, the bench said, "there is no reason for this court to doubt the veracity of their statements."
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It said the statements of four judges were "credible, consistent and truthful" and there was no reason to disbelieve it.
Loya and the four judges had travelled to Nagpur for the wedding and stayed at Ravi Bhawan, a government-run VIP guest house, where he suffered the cardiac arrest.
The issue of Loya's death had come under 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.
(Inputs from agencies)
