NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra has taken the case of controversial mysterious death of Mumbai's Special CBI judge Brijgopal H Loya for hearing by his Bench on Monday since Justice Arun Mishra recused last Tuesday.
Justice Mishra did not give any reason for withdrawing from the case, but it was obviously due to four senior-most rebel judges questioning assignment of such an important case to a junior judge. He, in fact, wept during the informal morning tea by the judges on Monday for the seniors questioning his capability.
The case has gained national importance only recently since BJP President Amit Shah, one of the accused in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter of 2005 in Gujarat Judge Loya was hearing, got discharged by his successor within four weeks of his death in December 2014. Judge Loya's doctor sister Anuradha Biyani raised questions on his death in a Delhi magazine in November, bringing into focus the death buried as heart attack.
The PILs of social activist Tehseen Poonawalla and Mumbai-based journalist Bandhuraj Sambhaji Lone for an independent probe, monitored by the court, into Loya's death are now listed on Monday as item no. 45 before the 3-judge Bench headed by the CJI.
The CJI had last week assigned the PILs for hearing to a Bench of Justices Arun Mishra and M M Shantanagoudar, which held two hearings on January 12 and 16 and directed the Maharashtra government to provide all papers concerning the death to the petitioners.
Since Justice Mishra has pulled out, a lawyer mentioned early listing of the case before the CJI who ordered the listing on Monday before an "appropriate" court, without saying his Bench will now handle it.
Judge Loya had died in Nagpur he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague's daughter. Though authorities declared it as death due to heart attack, doubts were expressed on his sudden death by his family members, including his sister, who said neither the judge nor anybody in the family had history of heart ailments and she became suspicious on the authorities hiding his post mortem report and the treatment given to him.
CONSTITUTION BENCH: The CJI chose to take up the case himself since he as well as Justices Khanwilkar and Chandrachud are free on Monday from the Constitution bench hearing the Aadhaar case. It meets the dissent of the four rebel judges that important cases be heard by the CJI himself or assigned to the senior judges and not to the juniors.
Meanwhile, a petition filed by the West Bengal government, challenging mandatory Aadhaar number in the Income Tax returns, has also been appended on Tuesday when the Constitution Bench resumes hearing on Aadhaar.
The West Bengal has challenged an amendment last year in the Income Tax Act by inserting Section 139AA, which provides, inter alia, that every person who is eligible to obtain AAdhaar Number is required to quote it in the PAN application form and Income Tax Return. It sought to declare the amendment as unconstitutional, illegal, arbitrary and in violation of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.