The petition seeking an independent probe into the death of judge B.H. Loya will be heard by the court of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on January 22, when the Supreme Court reconvenes after the weekend break.
According to the cause list put out by the Supreme Court, the case, which was earlier being heard by court number ten presided over by Justice Arun Mishra, will be heard by the chief justice's court. The bench, headed by Misra, also comprises Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud.
It was the assigning of the case to Justice Mishra's court earlier that is learnt to have prompted the four senior-most judges—Justices J. Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B. Lokur and Kurian Joseph—to go public with their grievances with regard to the manner in which the apex court was being administered by the chief justice.
The four judges, the chief justice's colleagues in the Supreme Court collegium, had in a letter to Misra two months back, complained that politically sensitive cases were being allocated to selected benches.
And the referral of the case of the death of judge Loya—who was hearing the case of the alleged fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, in which BJP chief Amit Shah was an accused—to a junior judge is learnt to have been the tipping point for them.
Loya died in December 2014 when visiting Nagpur; while the police claimed he died of a heart attack, there have been allegations of foul play.
Curiously, when the bench of Justices Mishra and Mohan M. Shantanagoudar heard the petition with regard to death of judge Loya on January 16, with the press conference of the senior-most judges in the backdrop, it said in its order, besides directing that the documents pertaining to the case be placed on record within seven days, that the matter be put before the appropriate bench.
The order gave rise to speculation that the judges were recusing themselves from hearing the case.
The reassigning of the case to the chief justice's court is being seen as an effort to assuage the concerns of the four dissenting judges.
The petition was mentioned before the chief justice's court on January 19, and Chief Justice Misra ordered that it should be put before an appropriate bench as per roster.
