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In a plea before the Bombay High Court, seeking action against 5 Government Officials who were allowed on a “Study Tour” to Israel during November 2019, suspected to acquire spying software similar to Pegasus, Notice was issued today to the Maharashtra Government, Directorate General Of Information and Public Relations (DGIPR), and the said 5 officials. The matter is listed next after 4 weeks.

A Division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Girish S Kulkarni heard the matter today.

The PIL seeks for a Judicial Inquiry against five officials of DGIPR, who went to Israel study tour between November 15 and November 25, 2019, when the formation of Government after the State Assembly Elections was in full operation.  

It is added by the Petitioners that permission for a study tour was in derogation of procedures laid down under Government Resolution, 2014 – indicating misuse of public funds and imposing unnecessary burden on the public exchequer. As per GR, 2014 activities which can be carried through videoconferencing may be avoided/may not be sanctioned as it unnecessarily burdens the Government Treasury.

“The study tour does not make out any prominent feature or reveal any substantial and specific importance so as to go to Israel and aspects mentioned in the proposal are general in nature…It appears that under the garb of media management training and other allied activities, the government was sending its officials to bring other modalities in the country for misusing them during election process, including electronic voting machine hacking software etc.,” the plea says.

Prayer is sought to check call records pertaining to the visit and ask the respondents to apprise the bench of what special knowledge the officials have acquired and how will it benefit the country.

It further seeks judicial inquiry into the entire proposal of the Israel tour and its process to sanction.

“It is pertinent to note that after the visit of Israel and the Vidhan Sabha Elections, 2019, various news articles have surfaced in connection with the purpose of (the) said Israel tour. More importantly, it appears that there is a nexus between the phone tapping case and the visit to Israel tour,” the plea adds.

The PIL is moved by RTI and social activists Laxman Narsayya Bura and Digambar Gentyal.

Inputs From The Indian Express