Woman in snoopgate moves against probe

The woman at the centre of the alleged snoopgate, along with her father on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court for restraining the Centre and the state government from going ahead with their commissions of inquiry. The woman cited privacy concerns and sought the court to order an immediate stay on the proceedings before the state commission which is already probing the allegations against chief minister Narendra Modi in Gujarat. Her counsel senior advocate Ranjit Kumar appeared before a bench of justices Ranjana Prakash Desai and N V Ramana and urged the court to immediately stop the state panel from proceeding while arguing that it is violation of the family's privacy and fundamental rights.

"My fundamental rights are being violated... my liberty is being violated," he said.

In an urgent hearing, the bench issued notices both to the Centre and the Gujarat governments and asked them to respond to the family's plea. It fixed Friday to hear the case after the Centre and the state governments come back with their views through their counsels.

The lawyers also sought an order barring the media from publishing the name of the woman and her family. However, the bench refused to gag the media.

The bench only made a formal request to the mediapersons present to refrain from naming the petitioner and her family members.

As part of the on-going attempts, the petitioners were shocked to learn from news published in responsible newspapers that the central government is also contemplating to constitute a commission of enquiry under the Enquiries Act.