“What is this? Last time you gave an undertaking….but again you started inquiry?” asks A M Singhvi.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday issued a stay order on West Bengal’s Lokur Panel probe in the Pegasus Row case. The former apex court judges Justice M B Lokur probe Pegasus snooping allegations.
A bench headed by the Chief Justice of India N V Ramana too permitted the petitioner, who challenged the continued operation of the Commission despite the SC had constituted a panel for the probe, to make the Commission a party in the proceedings. The bench, also comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli, issued notice to the Commission.
The CJI asked Senior Advocate A M Singhvi who appeared for the state how had the panel started an inquiry despite an earlier assurance given to the court. “What is this? Last time you gave an undertaking….but again you started inquiry?”
Singhvi said that he was not representing the Commission, but the State Government and had conveyed the court’s directions to 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.
The apex court on October 27 had appointed a three-member panel of cyber experts to probe the alleged use of Israeli spyware Pegasus for surveillance of certain people in India, saying every citizen needs protection against privacy violation and mere invocation of national security by the State does not render the court a mute spectator.
Former Supreme Court judge Lokur and former chief justice of Calcutta High Court Jyotirmay Bhattacharya are the members of the commission of inquiry announced by the West Bengal government last month.
An international media consortium has reported that over 300 verified Indian mobile phone numbers were on the list of potential targets for surveillance using Pegasus spyware.
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