New Delhi: The central government Friday told the Supreme Court that there was no move to set up a commission to probe the alleged snooping on a woman by Gujarat Police which triggered a political storm.
Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran told a bench of Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai and Justice N.V. Ramana that union Law Minister Kapil Sibal has already stated that there is no proposal to appoint a commission to inquire into Snoopgate.
Parasaran made the statement after the court issued notice on the plea of the woman and her father that the central and Gujarat governments be restrained from setting up a commission to inquire into the alleged snooping incident.
As the court recorded his statement and sought to dispose off the matter, senior counsel Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the woman and her father, said that he was challenging the Gujarat government notification setting up an inquiry commission.
The state’s Additional Advocate General Tushar Mehta told the court that though he had no instructions but he can personally make a statement.
At this, the court said that it was not interested in his personal statement and wanted the stand of the Gujarat government. Mehta then sought a few minutes time to seek instructions from the state government and went out of the court.
The court then said that it was disposing off the petition and as far as the Gujarat government notification setting up the inquiry commission was concerned, the woman and her father can approach the Gujarat High Court.
The apex court was moved by the woman and her father May 6, seeking to restrain the central government from appointing the commission to inquire into the allegation of snooping on her by the Gujarat Police. They had also challenged the Gujarat government notification for appointing an inquiry commission, calling it “wholly unwarranted and unjustified”.
They had opposed the measures as it would “necessarily infringe upon and encroach upon right to privacy of the petitioners and their family which would clearly be unwarranted and unjustified and would be violative of the fundamental rights of the petitioners and their family members as guaranteed under article 21 of the constitution”
The petitioners had said that they were satisfied by the steps taken by the Gujarat government for her safety.
The court was also told that there was a sinister campaign to tarnish the reputation of the woman and that of her family.
The entire matter came to light following an expose by two news portals of the telephonic conversations allegedly between Amit Shah, now BJP national general secretary who was then the state home minister, and two top state police officials about surveillance on the woman architect in 2009.