On Thursday April 19, 2018, the Indian Supreme Court dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) demanding a Special Investigation Team (SIT) enquiry into the death of Judge Brijgopal Harkishan Loya. The judgment drew widespread criticism, given how Judge Loya died under alleged mysterious circumstances.
Senior advocate and activist Prashant Bhushan said it was a “black day”. He tweeted:
Student activist Shehla Rashid raised questions about the competence and credibility of the CBI. She tweeted:
Student leader tirned politician Kanhaiya Kumar too lamented the judgment. He tweeted:
The Congress Party, through AICC Communications Incharge, Randeep Singh Surjewala, issued a Press Release saying, “Congress Party is committed to people’s demand for a fair investigation in the matter surrounding Judge Loya’s death.”
But the drama for the day was far from over. Minutes after the judgment was read out, the Supreme Court website was allegedly hacked by a Brazilian hacker group. This made it difficult for anyone to obtain a copy of the judgment.
Ordinarily, a copy of the judgment is uploaded on the Supreme Court website. However, as the website was not accessible, no one, including the petitioners of the media could access the judgment copy. However, Law Minister Ravishankar Prasad managed to get a certified copy of the judgment before anyone else, much to the chagrin of the petitioners.
The Supreme Court website was restored in the evening. You can read the judgement here.
What the SC said
A three judge bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice D. Y. Chandrachud and Justice A. M. Khanwilkar that heard the PIL, dismissed it saying, “There is no reason to disbelieve the sequence of events leading to the death as narrated by the four judicial officers namely Shrikant Kulkarni, Shriram Modak, R. Rathi and Vijay Kumar Barde and the assertions of Bombay High Court Justices Bhushan Gawai and Sunil Shukre.” It further admonished the petitioner for attempting to malign the judiciary.
Senior Counsel Dushyant Dave, Indira Jaising and V. Giri had appeared on behalf of the Bombay Lawyers’ Association, Former chief of the navy Admiral L. Ramdas, an intervenor, and Activist Tehseen Poonawalla respectively.
Previous controversy
On January 12, 2018, in an unprecedented move, four sitting judges of the Supreme Court came out and addressed a press conference alleging nepotism in the apex court. They alleged that the Chief Justice was assigning important and controversial cases only to a select few judges. They feared this cherry picking could have an impact on the judgment in these high profile cases, including the case pertaining to Judge Loya’s death.