Petitioners should know everything about the case: SC on Judge Loya's death

NEW DELHI: While hearing the pleas of the petitioners seeking an independent probe into the circumstances of the death of special CBI judge BH Loya, the Supreme Court told the Maharashtra government that all documents should be shared with everyone. "It is a matter where they (petitioners) should know everything."

The SC direction comes after the Maharashtra government on Tuesday submitted documents related to the death of Judge Loya in a sealed cover before the court. Maharashtra government has told the apex court that barring certain confidential reports placed by them, the petitioners can access all other documents related to the case.

Without fixing any specific date, the top court has listed the matter for hearing after a week.  The judge was presiding over the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and M M Shantanagoudar was hearing two PILs seeking independent probe into the death of Loya.

Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Maharashtra, told the bench that documents contained certain confidential material which cannot be shared in public and they cannot be given to petitioners -- a journalist and a Congress leader.

The counsel for the petitioners told the bench that they needed to look into these documents to argue the matter. "It is a matter where they (petitioners) should know everything," the bench observed.

Salve later told the court that the documents could be shown to the petitioners' counsel but they should not make it public and they would mark the confidential documents.

The bench directed that all the documents be given to the petitioners within a week.

The petitioners' counsel also assured the court that they would not make any of the documents public.

Judge Loya had allegedly died of cardiac arrest in Nagpur on December 1, 2014, when he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague's daughter.