Engal govt agrees o defer panel probe

Nudged by the eme Court, the West Bengal rnment on Wednesday ed to go slow on its probe the Pegasus snooping conrsy by a two-member Comion of Inquiry, headed by ed judge Madan B Lokur. bench, headed by Chief Jusof India NV Ramana, was that since the entire gamut egasus controversy was g considered by it in a sepabunch of cases where the n government has offered t up an expert committee to ine various aspects of charelated to the alleged snoopit made sense for the West al panel to “show restraint”. f course, it (commission by Bengal) has a bearing with et of other matters being d by us. In all fairness, we ct that you can wait for time. If you want us to pass e orders, we can do that too. you will have to maintain aint,” the bench, which also ded justice Surya Kant, told or lawyer Abhishek Manu hvi, who appeared for the government. the outset of the hearing, or advocate Harish Salve, represented the petition by NGO Global Village dation Public Charitable t seeking disbanding of the mission, submitted that e cannot be two parallel iries in same subject matter. pposing this, Singhvi quesd the bonafide of the petibut the bench remained that notwithstanding the ioner’s legal standing, the government will have to its hand till the court takes ll the cases together some

Atime next week.

“The other cases will have pari materia effect (form part of the same subject matter) on this case too. We will have your assistance when we hear those cases but you will have to agree to not do anything. You will not issue public notice or hold hearings,” the bench told Singhvi.

At this, the senior counsel sought to point out that nothing drastic will be done by the commission in the next one or two weeks but it must also be taken note of that there is a panel which is already examining the matter.

“Between now and next week, nothing earth-shattering is happening. But a single word by your lordships word will create a huge splash and that’s what they want,” submitted Singhvi.

The bench, however, retorted: “But it is you who is inviting an order. We are saying that we will not stay (the proceedings before the commission) because you have agreed that you will not precipitate the matter. But if you start hearing and holding inquiries then we will have to stop it. Please, show restraint.”

With the writing on the wall clear, Singhvi responded: “Please, say nothing. The court does not need to say anything. I will convey it. Nothing will happen for one or two weeks.”

Following the assurance from Singhvi, the court issued a formal notice on the NGO’S petition and tagged it with the clutch of other cases filed by journalists, politicians and civil rights activists who have demanded a courtmonitored investigation into the alleged snooping row.

The Pegasus row erupted on July 18 after an international investigative consortium reported that the phones of Indian ministers, politicians, activists, businessmen and journalists were among the 50,000 numbers from around the world that were potentially targeted by the Israeli company NSO Group’s phone hacking software. The devices of at least 67 of the numbers were analysed by Amnesty International and of these, 37 had signs of being hacked by Pegasus. Of these 37, 10 were in India. NSO says its software is sold only to government customers.