Gujarat HC adjourns hearing on legality of snooping commission

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court today adjourned the hearing on a petition challenging the legality of Justice Sugnya Bhatt inquiry commission set up by the Narendra Modi government to probe the snooping scandal. A division bench of Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J B Pardiwala scheduled the next hearing for March 3 due to the absence of one of the petitioners. [caption id=“attachment_1402971” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] Two lawyers, Girish Das and Ratna Vora, have moved the HC questioning the legality of the panel. Vora, in her affidavit, has stated the Commission was set up by Modi government but he himself was facing the allegations. She has also questioned the public interest in setting up the Commission. Das has sought a CBI inquiry into alleged illegal phone-tapping of 93,000 persons by the state government in the last six months. News portals Cobrapost.Com and Gulail.Com had claimed in November last year that Amit Shah, then the Minister of State for Home, had ordered illegal surveillance of a young woman at the behest of “Saheb”. They also released taped conversations between Shah and suspended IPS officer G L Singhal to support the claim. PTI