The UPA government's order to set up an inquiry committee into the snooping case that allegedly involves Narendra Modi and his close aide Amit Shah, is likely to be scrapped.
Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju has said that the NDA government will review the UPA order. The Union Home Ministry is expected to write to the cabinet requesting to scrap the decision of setting up an inquiry committee to investigate the snooping case, according to The Hindu.
According to the UPA government's order, either a retired Supreme Court judge or a retired Chief Justice of High Court was to head the committee.
The UPA government had decided to name the judge before 16 May this year. However, the former government had to drop the idea to set up an inquiry commission, as no retired SC judge was willing to be the panel head.
Also, some members from National Congress Party and the National Conference expressed opposition on UPA's order, following which the decision to set the committee was handed over to the new government, according to the Hindustan Times.
The BJP-led government has instead demanded to scrap the decision of setting up the panel citing that a parallel inquiry had been ordered by the Gujarat government.
On 26 December 2013, UPA government ordered to set up an inquiry commission to investigate the alleged surveillance of a woman architect in Gujarat. The surveillance was ordered by BJP leader Shah in 2009, on the instructions of 'saheb', claimed by the two investigative websites.
They claimed to have access to audio recordings containing conversation, in which Shah has been alleged to direct the surveillance of the woman. The recordings were handed over to the CBI. 'Saheb' in the recording is alleged to be Prime Minister Modi.
According to news reports, the woman and her father Pranlal Soni had approached SC, when UPA declared that the commission would start inquiry from 16 May. They requested the SC to cancel the probe citing the surveillance was done with their approval.
The Committee, if formed, was supposed to investigate two other controversies along with it. The other two cases involved the surveillance of Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh by the previous Dhumal government and the call detail record (CDR) of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.