Panel Won't Probe Pegasus Snooping Row For Now: Bengal To Supreme Court

The case at hand is connected to other matters and "in all fairness we expect you to wait... we will hear it with the other matters sometime next week, " the court said.

The West Bengal government today told the Supreme Court that its two-member panel headed by former Supreme Court judge MB Lokur will not proceed with the inquiry into the alleged Pegasus snooping matter till the pleas pending before the top court have been heard. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana on August 17 had issued notice to the Centre on a batch of petitions, including the one filed by the Editors Guild of India, seeking independent probe into the alleged snooping and said that it would take up the matter after 10 days and see what course should be adopted. The pleas taken up earlier were related to reports of alleged snooping by government agencies on eminent citizens, politicians, and journalists by using Israeli firm NSO's spyware Pegasus. As soon as a separate plea by NGO 'Global Village Foundation Public Charitable Trust', against the setting up of the commission of inquiry by the West Bengal government, came up for hearing on Wednesday, the bench suggested the state to not proceed with its inquiry saying, "If we are hearing other matters, we expect some restraint."