Will appoint judge to probe ‘snoopgate’ by May 16: Shinde

Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde sparked a controversy on Friday when he announced that the government would appoint a judge before May 16, the day counting of votes in the Lok Sabha polls is taken up, to head the judicial commission set up to investigate the “snoopgate.”

In December, the UPA government had announced that a panel would be set up to investigate the charges of snooping on a woman by government agencies in Gujarat, allegedly at the behest of their political masters. But the name of the judge to head the panel has not been announced to date.

Now, soon after Mr. Shinde’s announcement at a press conference in Shimla, the BJP asserted that the government had no right to appoint a judge in the middle of elections and said the new government would be well within its rights to “review such a mala fide decision.”

The Home Minister maintained that the decision to appoint a commission of inquiry was taken well before the announcement of the general elections on March 5.

“We will soon appoint the judge....before May 16,” he said adding that “the way the Gujarat Chief Minister has snooped on a woman, I am really worried what will happen to women of the country if he becomes the PM.”

BJP leader Arun Jaitley said the UPA was getting “desperate” as it had no plank to fight the election.

He pointed out that a commission of inquiry, headed by a woman High Court judge, was already in place in Gujarat and the Centre did not have the right to form another commission at this juncture when the Model Code of Conduct is in place.

Mr. Jaitley claimed that the UPA had made three unsuccessful attempts against Mr. Modi so far.

“First they tried to appoint two new information commissioners, second they tried to fill up the quorum of the Search Committee for appointment of the Lokpal, and third they are trying desperately to get at least one judge to agree to head the ‘snoopgate’ commission. “I doubt very much if any of these moves is likely to succeed. Even if it does, a future government would be well within its legitimate rights to review such a mala fide last-minute decision of the UPA,” he said.