MUMBAI: The Bombay Lawyers Association (BLA) on Monday filed a petition in the Bombay High Court demanding an enquiry commission to probe the death of CBI Special Court Additional Sessions Judge Brijgopal Harkishan Loya, who presided over the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case.

“We have filed it today and shall mention it before the Chief Justice on Wednesday for fixing a hearing date. If not, we shall have to wait for it to come up in the normal course, which can take time,” BLA lawyer Ahmad Abdi told IANS.

The BLA has urged the court to “constitute a commission of enquiry headed by a retired Supreme Court judge to investigate the events and circumstances surrounding the death of Judge Loya”.

The plea came in the wake of a report published in a news magazine  Caravan in its Nov.21, 2017 edition, the BLA said, requesting it to be treated as a public interest litigation (PIL).

The BLA has made the Maharashtra government, the Registrar-General, the journalist who investigated and wrote the story and the magazine as respondents.

The petition has mentioned several media reports since the controversy over Judge Loya’s death first erupted after the Caravan news reports.

Earlier, several legal luminaries including former Supreme Court Judge Justice PB Sawant, retired Bombay High Court judges BG Kolse-Patil, BH Marlapalle, AP Shah and others sought an independent probe into the matter.