The UPA government told the Supreme Court that it has decided to drop the commission set up to inquire into surveillance of a woman architect by the Gujarat police allegedly at the behest of senior functionaries in the Narendra Modi government.
The decision of the Union Cabinet to set up a commission on ‘Snoopgate’, as the controversy came to be called, failed to begin functioning as no retired judge was willing to head the probe and Congress’s own allies expressed misgivings.
Soon after the Gujarat government set up a commission to look into the issue after two websites published audio recordings of instructions regarding the woman’s surveillance, the Centre had set up a panel of its own. But the Centre could not make the commission functional for the last three months as all the retired judges it approached were reluctant to take up the assignment.
Immediately after law minister Kapil Sibal’s statement last week that the commission would be functional by May 16, the woman architect and her father Pranlal Soni approached the SC seeking quashing of both the central as well as state inquiry commissions saying they were ‘thankful” to the Gujarat government for the surveillance which they said had their consent.
Solicitor general Mohan Parasaran told a bench of Justices Ranjana P Desai and N V Ramana that the Centre had no proposal to appoint a commission. Once the SG made the statement, the bench told the petitioners that they could approach the Gujarat high court challenging the state’s decision to set up an inquiry panel. The petitioners agreed and withdrew their petition.
The decision of the Union Cabinet to set up a commission on ‘Snoopgate’, as the controversy came to be called, failed to begin functioning as no retired judge was willing to head the probe and Congress’s own allies expressed misgivings.
Soon after the Gujarat government set up a commission to look into the issue after two websites published audio recordings of instructions regarding the woman’s surveillance, the Centre had set up a panel of its own. But the Centre could not make the commission functional for the last three months as all the retired judges it approached were reluctant to take up the assignment.
Immediately after law minister Kapil Sibal’s statement last week that the commission would be functional by May 16, the woman architect and her father Pranlal Soni approached the SC seeking quashing of both the central as well as state inquiry commissions saying they were ‘thankful” to the Gujarat government for the surveillance which they said had their consent.
Solicitor general Mohan Parasaran told a bench of Justices Ranjana P Desai and N V Ramana that the Centre had no proposal to appoint a commission. Once the SG made the statement, the bench told the petitioners that they could approach the Gujarat high court challenging the state’s decision to set up an inquiry panel. The petitioners agreed and withdrew their petition.
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