SC junks plea to probe judge Loya’s death: The 14 top observations

The Supreme Court made some stinging observations while rejecting a batch of petitions that sought a probe into the death of judge B H Loya. One of the most stinging observations that were made by the court was when it said that courts are not a place to settle business or political scores.

Here are the top observations of the court:

• No probe into the death of judge B H Loya
• The PIL had no truth in it and was an attempt to malign the judiciary.
• Judge had died a natural death and there was not a shred of doubt about it.
• The judicial process should not be governed by fear of contempt. The judicial process is based on the moral authority of courts.
• Petitioners' advocates Dushyant Dave, Indira Jaising and Prashant Bhushan launched a frontal attack on the judiciary by telling SC to disbelieve three judicial officers who accompanied Loya to Nagpur, stayed with him at a guest house and said Loya died of a heart attack.
• During the arguments, counsels did not maintain institutional civility towards the judges of the SC and made wild allegations.
• It would have been ideal to initiate contempt proceedings against the petitioners in such a case where a political rivalry is brought to the court to malign the judiciary.
• PILs were meant to provide succour to the downtrodden and voiceless but now have become an industry to settle business and political rivalry.

• Allegations against judges were a "vituperative assault on the judiciary."
• These days an avalanche of PILs are being filed to settle business and political scores and the judiciary is unnecessarily made to spend precious time looking into such PILs which leads to delay in giving justice in other cases.
• This PIL was a misuse of both judicial process and time. There is absolutely no merit in the allegations that Loya's death was suspicious. The statements of the judicial officers who accompanies him are clear and satisfactory.
• When Loya matter was brought to SC, a magazine and a daily newspaper published motivated reports to malign judiciary.
• It was a completely frivolous petition brought in a motivated manner to denigrate judiciary.

PILs dismissed while quoting the following material facts. Indisputable statements of judicial officers. Nothing wrong with friends and colleagues sharing same room at Ravi Bhawan. Loya called his wife on Nov 30, said he was staying at Ravi Bhawan.