New Delhi, April 19: Hours after the Supreme Court dismissed the batch of petitions seeking independent probe into the death of Justice BH Loya, the Congress raised doubts over the transparency in dissemination of information from the top court, asking how could Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad be provided a copy of the verdict before the press.

Congress' national spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala claimed the copy of the verdict was provided to Prasad while the apex court's website was inaccessible to the general populace due to a hack.

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court while pronouncing its verdict said the petitions seeking an independent probe into Justice Loya's death are "frivolous" and "politically motivated".

The bench headed by Chief Justice of India Deepak Misra further rapped by the petitioners saying "politics should be played in the halls of democracy", rather than the courtroom.

Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan, whose NGO Centre For Public Interest Litigation was one of the petitioners in the case, said, "This is a dark day in the history of judiciary... Those seeking a fair inquiry into a mysterious death of a district court judge have been accused of playing politics."

The Congress said it would remain committed to its demand for a free and fair inquiry into the case. "The verdict marks a sad day in India's history. The Supreme Court verdict has left many questions unanswered. There were discrepancies in the post-mortem report, even in recording the name of the victim properly," he said.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 19, 2018 06:11 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).