Justice Loya case study

   

Impact of justice Loya case current discussions on credibility and sovereignty of Indian Judiciary

                                  -Aachal Burande

          Justice Brijgopal Harikisan Loya case is now becoming the big issue related to Indian Judiciary especially after the press conference taken by four senior most judges of Supreme Court. The story of Justice Loya first broke by Caravan Magazine by Nirajan Takle on 20^th November, 2014. Death of justice Loya was suspicious & it has been proved after interviewing Mrs. Anuradha Biyani who is sister of Justice Loya and his family members by Mr. Takle. This case has background of almost 12 years till date.

              The root of the case started from 2005. The life of justice loya got eclipsed from when he appointed the encounter case of Soharabuddin. Soharabuddin was a terrorist linked with Lashkar-E-Toiba. He had charge for attempting a plan for the murder of former Chief Minister of Gujrat and now Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi. Police of Gujrat,Rajasthan and UP were finding Soharabuddin. Once Soharabuddin and his wife spotted at Ahemdabad. He fired bullets on police and under the name of self defence police hit him along with his wife. His wife Kausar bi was the last witnessed of the encounter. Further police had listed the encounter cases held in the year 2003 to 2006, there was no name of Soharabuddin. Supreme court sent this case to CBI. CBI(Crime Bureau of Investigation) had accused D.G.Banjara & Amit Shah (former home minister of Gujrat and now president of BJP) of instructing police officials to carry out a fake encounter. On 26^th June, 2014 judge of CBI Special court Justice Utpat given a hearing date to Mr. Shah. But unfortunately, Justice Utpat got transferred a day before hearring & case appointed to Justice H.B. Loya. The Supreme court had transferred the case to Maharashtra after the CBI had raised doubts over the impartiality of the justice system in Gujrat. Justice Loya given many dates for hearing of the case but Mr. Shah didn’t attend a single one reasoning his busy schedule. Justice Loya given last date of 15^th December, 2014 in Mumbai. But again unfortunately on 1^st December, 2014 he died suspiciously in Nagpur. After him, 3^rd judge MB Gosavi had discharged Mr. Amit Shah in less than one month after death of judge on 30^th December, 2014. As judge Gosavi found that Mr. Shah’s name was dragged in the case for political reasons. Case closes here and after three years some evidence or stories came in the light which tends to open the case.

            

           Discussions on this case started after the story break by journalist Niranjan Takle in two phase. The first shoking report by his family was a suspicious death leaving many questions. Second report published on the next day by his sister alleged that the Chief Justice of Bombay High Court offered him a bribe of Rs, 100 crore to deliver a verdict favorable to Shah. This broke many ties of the weaved story. By the end of the week, two news outlets NDTV & The Indian Express had published follow up stories. Finding contradictions while following up a story is not unusual. No single report can encompass all the facts pertaining to a case till date. Tahseen Poonawala filed a petition in Supreme court for investigation on Loya’s death. Supreme court assign this case to th junior judge Arun Mishra & it was supposed to take decision on the same on 12^th January, 2018.

            The case got different height after the press conference held by four senior most judges of Supreme court on the same day 12^th January, 2018. Each and every newspaper, news channel & magazine of India and other nations noticed this historical press conference. Four justices J. Chelameshwar, Ranjan Gogoi, M.B. Lokur and Kurian Joseph said that the democracy of India is in danger unless the institution is preserved. Something is going wrong in the highest court of the country from last few months. They have accused Chief Justice of India Deepak Mishra for case fixing of the political controversial cases. The cases which had political controversy CJI assigns it to junior judges who gives favorable verdict. Justice Loya’s case was just a trigger but the judges had been unhappy over the several important cases. These important cases includes one the most high profile case “Sahara Birla diaries”. It directly accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of corruption charges. Again case was assign to justice Arun Mishra and he said no investigation needed as he don’t feel it to be worthy. After this there was another case in which CJI himself was accused for inquiry & this case was also given to Arun Mishra where he denied.

            Recent discussions are related to the medical reports examined by India’s Foremost Forensic expert Dr. RK Sharma. He said, “The findings in this report have no suggestion of a heart attack. They show changes, but not a heart attack.” Medical reports also proves that dura is damaged in case of trauma, indicates some physical kind of assault on the brain & even the possibility of poisoning every single organ. Many hashtags are are being viral in media like #JusticeLoya, #Loya’sDeath, #KillarAmitShah, #Contoversy, etc.   

            Deeply looking towards all the issues happening surrounding, is the four pillars of Democracy in India are still strong & independent? Are they still credible? Indian Judiciary is still sovereign? As many as like these questions grappled around. Judiciary, the most important pillar of Democracy should be sovereign. No one has rights to interfere in judiciary. But this increasing political pressure, it may collapse in few months along with democracy. It also affect Indian progressive politics. These all upheavals make nation unstable. Media is still alive but assassinations of many journalists who talks against ruling party made it fearful to common people to ideatize. There is no easy way to prove or disprove the suspicious raised about judge Loya’s death. But if we are to get closer to the truth, we must approach it with more open minds and fewer certitudes.