Snoopgate: The Petition
The news is that father of the girl, who was allegedly spied upon by Narendra Modi as a love interest while he was Gujarat chief minister, has approached the supreme court as a next friend of the girl to restrain the state from conducting any enquiry in Snoopgate to protect the privacy of the girl, who is now married. The petition claims that the snooping was done at the request of the girl herself for her own security.
Snoopgate: Objections to the Petition
Here are my objections:
- The father has no locus standi to petition the court as a next friend of the married girl as she is free to move herself.
- The petition is prima facie motivated because no such petition was filed when the Gujarat state set up the enquiry commission exposing the girl to a similar privacy infringement.
- The allegation of infringement of privacy by being a subject of surveillance by the state, on the request of the father, tantamount to saying that the father is an accused of stalking her own daughter, and the Gujarat state is an abettor. The identity of the victim should be protected but not at the request of the father/stalker, who himself is an accused.
- The supreme court has issued notice to restrain enquiry on petition of a prospective accused without any allegations/averment of any prejudice being caused to the accused/father.
- It is clear from the prima facie evidence available in the media that the surveillance was illegal, and the petition has been filed to protect the Gujarat state, an abettor.
- The petition in disguise is an anticipatory bail application by the father admitting to the initiation of surveillance by him. The father should have been immediately arrested and sent to jail on the the basis of the averments made in the petition, which was not done.
- In case the petition has also been signed by the girl, then the girl is an accused herself by instigating the state to carry out illegal surveillance, and, in such a case, she obviously doesn’t deserve any protection of privacy.
- Even if father’s petition on behalf of the girl as a next friend is admitted, the girl by agreeing and acquiescing to the illegal surveillance by the state has already foregone her right to privacy, and the same relinquishment applies wrt central government as well.
Comment Dated October 7, 2025
Today when I am editing the above blog post, I find the whole media is reporting that the petition was filed jointly by the father and the girl. I had researched pretty well while writing the blog post then. The petiiton was filed by the father as a next friend. So, there was no occasion for the girl to sign it. If it was a joint petition, the father signed for both himself and his daughter as a next friend.
(Indian media is anyways always on sale. A three time prime minister doesn’t even have to make an offer to buy it.)