India top court says Judge Loya death is 'serious matter'
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CARAVAN MAGAZINE
India's Supreme Court has said that the 2014 death of a lower court judge, BH Loya, is a "serious matter" which needs to be examined objectively.
Judge Loya died of a heart attack before he was due to give a verdict in a case of ruling BJP party chief Amit Shah, accused of ordering a murder.
The new judge assigned to the case ruled against putting Mr Shah on trial.
The top court is hearing petitions calling for a probe into allegations that the judge was murdered.
On Monday the court ordered the two other petitions pending in the case be transferred to itself from the Bombay High Court, and will now hear them in February.
According to official records, Judge Loya died of a sudden heart attack.
"As of now, it's a natural death. Let's not cast aspersions. Let's not prejudge," said Justice DY Chandrachud, who is one of the three judges presiding over the hearing.
In November, Indian magazine The Caravan published a story in which Judge Loya's family raised serious questions over the circumstances around his death.
This was followed by other media reports which questioned the family's claims.
The judges said that they would examine the original records of Judge Loya's death to determine the "circumstances that have led to the death".
A senior lawyer representing the Maharashtra government said that a police officer had carried out a "discreet inquiry" after the media reports.
The injury revealed that there was "no foul play" in Judge Loya's death, the newspaper quoted lawyer Harish Salve as telling the top court.
The issue of his death was also raised earlier this month, when four of India's most senior Supreme Court judges warned that democracy was under threat because of the way the court is run.
In an unprecedented event, they held a press conference and said that Chief Justice Dipak Misra was ignoring rules and assigning cases according to his own preferences.
One of the concerns raised by the senior judges included the handling of Judge Loya's case.
