Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Dec 17: The Supreme Court has stayed further proceedings by a Commission of Inquiry appointed by the West Bengal Government to look into the allegations of snooping using the Israeli spyware Pegasus after the state told the apex court that it was in no position to issue any instruction to the commission.
A Bench led by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana on Friday impleaded the commission, comprising former Supreme Court judge, Justice Madan B. Lokur, and retired Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court Jyotirmay Bhattacharya, to stop further proceedings of the commission. The court issued notice to the panel to be served through its secretary. The bench, also comprised Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli.
The order was passed on an urgent plea filed by an NGO, ‘Global Village Foundation Trust’ pointing out that the Lokur commission was going ahead with a ‘parallel inquiry’ into Pegasus allegations even after the apex court-appointed committee was seized with the matter.
The apex court had appointed a committee led by retired Supreme Court judge, Justice R.V. Raveendran in October to ‘expeditiously’ examine the Pegasus snooping reports. However, before the apex court appointed the commission, the West Bengal government had constituted the Lokur Commission in July to probe into the complaints of spying allegedly by the central government agencies with the help of Pegasus on some citizens of West Bengal.
The West Bengal government’s July move to appoint the Lokur commission was heard by the Supreme Court in August but it had refrained from granting any stay and had only issued pre-admission notice to the Centre on August 17 on petitions seeking an independent inquiry into allegations that the Government used the Israeli-based spyware to snoop on journalists, activists, dissenters, parliamentarians, Ministers and other citizens.
During the hearing on August 25, the Supreme Court initially wanted to pass a formal order to stop the commission from going ahead with its inquiry when the case was already pending before the court. However, the State Government through senior advocate A.M. Singhvi, had given an oral assurance to the court to convey a ‘message of restraint’ to the commission.
The CJI on Friday asked Singhvi who appeared for the state how had the panel started an enquiry despite an earlier assurance given to the court. “What is this? Last time you gave an undertaking….but again you started an inquiry?” Singhvi said he was not representing the Commission but the state government and had conveyed the court’s directions to the Commission.
Singhvi told the court that the message of restraint had been conveyed to the commission as promised. The commission had stopped its work till the court had passed orders in October. Singhvi said the State Government could not interfere in the working of the Commission of Inquiry, and it was now up to the Supreme Court to pass any formal orders for the commission.
He added that the restraint on the Commission was till the SC passed its order after which the probe panel began its work.
“I cannot as a state government ask them not to,” he added.
The bench said it understands the state’s predicament and went on to issue notice to the Commission and stay all further proceedings. This led the court to implead the commission, issue notice and order the stay of further proceedings.
The allegations of the central government having used the Israeli spyware to snoop on various citizens including some politicians belonging to the opposition as well as a few of the government ministers had rocked Parliament during the monsoon session and the Supreme Court also had taken a very dim view of the development terming it as an attack on the democracy. The government had denied it had spied on any Indian citizen but had refused to give any detail about the use of the spyware taking shelter under national security.