JUDGMENT

Dr. D.Y. CHANDRACHUD, J.

A The Context

1. In the batch of petitions before this Court, the petitioners seek an inquiry into the circumstances of the death of Brijgopal Harikishan Loya. He was a judicial officer in the State of Maharashtra in the rank of a district judge and died on 1 December 2014. Articles on his death were published in the issues of Caravan magazine dated 20 and 21 November 2017. The first article was titled

“A family breaks its silence : shocking details emerge in death of judge presiding over Sohrabuddin trial”.

2. Since the petitions are founded on the two articles published in Caravan, it would be necessary to extract them in this judgment:

(i) Caravan article dated 20 November 2017:

“On the morning of 1 December 2014, the family of 48-year-old judge Brijgopal Harkishan Loya, who was presiding over the Central Bureau of Investigation special court in Mumbai, was informed that he had died in Nagpur, where he had travelled for a colleague’s daughter’s wedding. Loya had been hearing one of the most high-profile cases in the country, involving the allegedly staged encounter killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh in 2005. The prime accused in the case was Amit Shah—