The Supreme Court has decided to hear on Monday the pleas seeking an independent probe into the alleged mysterious death of special Central Bureau of Investigation judge B H Loya.

The top court fixed January 22 for the hearing and directed listing of petitions before 'an appropriate bench'.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud said an appropriate bench of the apex court would hear the petitions filed by Congress leader Tehseen Poonawalla and Maharashtra journalist B S Lone.

The counsel for the petitioners said they wanted clarification on the date of hearing of the petition in the wake of the order passed by a bench of Justices Arun Mishra and M M Shantanagoudar.

"List the matters on January 22, 2018, before theappropriate bench as per the roster," the CJI's bench said.

A bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra had on January 16, ordered the matters to be listed before an appropriate bench and had not fixed any specific date for hearing.

It had left it to the Maharashtra government to decide which documents, relating to Loya's death, could be handed over to the petitioners.

The state government, which had filed documents in a sealed cover relating to Loya's death, had during the hearing opposed the petitioners' demand that the entire material should be handed over to them for perusal.

The apex court, in its January 16, order said, "Let the documents be placed on record within seven days and if it is considered appropriate, copies be furnished to the petitioners. Put up before the appropriate bench".

The case, whose assignment to the bench hearing the PILs was a bone of contention of the unprecedented press conference by four senior-most judges of the apex court on January 12.

Loya, who was hearing the sensitive Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case, had allegedly died of cardiac arrest in Nagpur on December 1, 2014, when he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague's daughter.  -- PTI