Days after the Supreme Court stopped the working of a two-member commission set up by the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal to probe the Pegasus snooping scandal, Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Monday alleged that he had not been communicated prior to the constitution of such a panel as per the Commission of Inquiry Act.
Dhankhar claimed that he had sought details from the chief secretary about the proceedings of the formation of the commission led by Justice (Rtd) Madan B. Lokur. Since the chief secretary failed to give him a report, the Governor has invoked Article 167 of the Constitution and sought a clarification from the chief minister.
“I am constrained to invoke Article 167 of the Constitution so as to seek all conceived proceedings and documentation leading to issuance of notifications dated 26.07.2021 constituting the Pegasus inquiry commission. This has become necessary as the chief secretary has unfortunately failed to provide such information,” Dhankhar said in a letter to Banerjee on Monday.
“It emanates from the penultimate and last para of the notification that provisions of sub-sections (2) to (5) of Section 5 and section 5A of the Commission Inquiry Act, 1952 have been made applicable to the proceedings of ‘Pegasus’ inquiry commission premised on the ‘opinion of the governor’,” read the letter.
The Governor further said: “It is significant that there has been no communication whatsoever on this count from your side to this office prior to promulgation of the notification dated 26. 07. 2021. In such a situation there could obviously be no formation of any opinion at my end and there has been none as a matter of fact.”
Raj Bhavan sources told THE WEEK that the constitution of the Lokur commission was “erroneous” and “invalid” in the eye of law even if the Supreme Court had not stopped its functioning.
Article 167 makes it mandatory for any chief minister to report to the Governor on certain issues pertaining to the state. With Dhankar invoking this provision, the Lokur commission has received another jolt.
This correspondent had earlier reported on why such a commission, which needs to deal with the issues of communications that entirely fall under the Union list, could have very little impact on the natural form of justice as perceived by the apex court. The commission would require data and documents which are totally in the jurisdiction of the Union government.
The Supreme Court, therefore, rightfully constituted a Special Investigation Team to probe the Pegasus snooping, said a legal observer.
