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 of India (SCI) as a next friend of the girl to restrain the central government from conducting any enquiry in snoopgate to protect the privacy of the girl, who is now married.

The petition claims that the snooping by the state police and the intelligence machinery was done at the request of the girl herself for her own security. It is obviously illegal for the state machinery, including the intelligence, to snoop upon ordinary citizens without following the procedure established by law. However much the intelligence agencies may infringe the privacy of people with complete impunity, the law applicable to them is same as to the police.

However, all law was ignored to infringe the privacy of a private individual by allegedly no less than the chief minister of the state in connivance with the home minister, who, of course, headed the state police and the intelligence machinery. Now when the central government has started investigation into the said snooping commonly known as snoopgate, the SCI has been approached to stop the investigation with the ironical ground that the central government investigation infringes the privacy of the girl by investigating snoopgate.

Snoopgate: The Objections to the Petition

Here are my simple objections to the snoopgate proceedings in the SCI:

• 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 Gujarat 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 then by agreeing and acquiescing to the illegal surveillance by the Gujarat 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 snoopgate petition was filed jointly by the father and the girl. I had researched pretty well while writing the blog post then. The snoopgate 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.)

Comment Dated January 22, 2026

Snoopgate may look like a frivolous attempt of the central government at that time to target a political opponent, which gets more support from the fact that the central government later made a statement in the SCI that they were not investigating snoopgate any more, thus making the petition in the SCI infructuous. However, snoopgate was just a tip of the iceberg. The rot went way deep. The whole police and intelligence machinery of Gujarat had become corrupt under the auspices of Modi and Shah. Ironically, the duo are now running the country following the very same Gujarat model of governance.

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