‘Snoopgate’ panel: UPA decision may be reviewed

The Union Home Ministry is likely to review the controversial decision of the UPA government to order a probe into the “Snoopgate” affair.

It has also recommended to the Union Cabinet to scrap the December 26, 2013 order to set up a judicial commission of inquiry to look into the allegations of surveillance of a woman in Gujarat in 2009.

Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju has indicated that the “politically-motivated” decision to set up the inquiry commission will be reviewed by the NDA government. Official sources said the Ministry was likely to move a note for the Cabinet with its recommendation of doing away with the decision.

The UPA government had announced that the commission, to be headed by a retired Supreme Court judge or a retired Chief Justice of a High Court, would also look into charges of snooping on Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh by the previous BJP government when he was in the Opposition as well as the leaking of the call data records of BJP leader Arun Jaitley.

The UPA government could not appoint a retired judge to head the inquiry panel, and had to put its plan on hold as the Lok Sabha elections were announced.

In early May, the pervious Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde had sparked a controversy by declaring that the government would appoint a judge before May 16, the day counting of votes for the Lok Sabha polls was taken up, to head the commission set up to investigate “Snoopgate”.

The UPA government had announced that the proposed probe panel would investigate the charges of snooping on a woman by government agencies in Gujarat, allegedly at the behest of their political masters. It evoked a strong reaction from the BJP which asserted that the government had no right to appoint a judge in the middle of elections. It said the new government would be well within its rights to “review such a mala fide decision.”