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In a plea seeking to disband committee formed by West Bengal Government, to probe into Pegasus issue, Supreme Court today said, “You are forcing us to pass order - We are only saying practice some restraint for now.” Notice was issued and listed with the other batch of pleas, pending adjudication in the matter.

A Division Bench of Chief Justice NV Ramana and Justice Surya Kant, heard the matter today.

Senior Advocate Harish Salve submitted that there cannot be a parallel enquiry in the issue when it is already before the Top Court.

Appearing for the West Bengal Government, Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi gave an oral assurance that the inquiry by State Govt. Committee, shall not proceed unless the Top Court hears the pending petitions in the matter.

“The issue is definitely connected to other petitions and in all fairness, we expect you to wait,” Court said.

The two-member Commission is headed by retired Supreme Court Judge, Justice Madan B Lokur.

On the last date of hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that the prima facie act of state government of constituting such a committee is unconstitutional.

Advocate Saurabh Mishra appearing for the petitioner said that the state government cannot inquire into the issue, especially when it is being looked at from a pan-India lens.

Last month, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, while announcing the commission said,
“The Cabinet has approved the appointment of a commission of inquiry consisting of Hon’ble Justice M.B. Lokur, retired judge, Hon'ble Supreme Court of India, and Hon'ble Justice Jyotirmay Bhattacharya, retired Chief Justice, Hon'ble High Court at Calcutta, in exercise of the power conferred by Section 3 of the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952, in the matter of the widely reported illegal hacking, monitoring, putting under surveillance, tracking, recording, etc., of mobile phones of various persons in the State of West Bengal.”

According to the notification issued by the West Bengal government, the commission is expected to look into:

• whether any incidences of reported interception have occurred;
• Whether State and non-State actors were involved in such reported interception;
• What was the mechanism and/or spyware and/or malware that were being used to effectuate such reported interception.

Case Title: Global Village Foundation v. Union of India