Bombay High Court issues notice to Maharashtra govt on plea alleging 2019 study tour of State officials to Israel was to acquire Pegasus

A public interest litigation petition has been filed before the Bombay High Court alleging that the object behind sending a delegation of senior officials from the Maharashtra Director General of Information & Public Relations (DGIPR) to Israel for a study tour in 2019 was to “acquire spying software like Pegasus.”.A Bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni issued notice to the DGIPR and Maharashtra government in the PIL seeking judicial enquiry against the officials sent and the officers who granted sanction for such officials to go for the tour..As per the plea, on November 15, 2019, soon after the assembly elections in the State, a delegation of five chosen senior officials of DGIPR was sent to Israel for 10 days to study enhancement of web media..The PIL said that the topics which were proposed to be covered in the tour were “new trends in government PR, new ways of utilising web media, usage of digital marketing tools and utilising media in the times of emergencies ad eventualities, preparation of holistic & comprehensive media plan for dissemination of government messages” among others..The petition stated that the tour was in respect of enhancement of usage in web media and all the works connected with the same which fall in category of public relations. Israel, however, is a country having expertise in technology of agriculture and ammunition, the petitioner claimed..The plea stated that under the “garb of media management training and other allied activities, the Government was sending its officer to bring other modalities in the country for misusing them during election process”..“It is pertinent to note that after the visit to Israel and the Vidhan Sabha Elections, 2019, various news articles have surfaced in connection with the purpose of said Israel tour. More importantly, it appears that there is a nexus between the phone tapping case and the visit to Israel tour," it was submitted..In this backdrop, the petitioners stated that sanctioning of proposals for Israel study tour creates a reasonable suspicion as to the purpose of the tour..The PIL filed by RTI activists Laxman Bura and Digambar Gentyal, stated that the proposal for the study tour was sanctioned in contravention to the Government Resolution (GR) of December 29, 2014.The GR stated that foreign tour by an official requires approval from the Chief Minister of the State.It was important to mention why the tour was beneficial for the functioning of government as the same was to be funded from the government treasury..The petitioners stated that an amount of ₹ 14 lakh which was sanctioned for the tour, did not have any approval from the Ministry of Finance implying that it was in contravention of the GR and thus a complete misuse of the public money..Through responses received on their RTI applications seeking details of the tour, the petitioners discovered that the proposal was allegedly not submitted before the General Administration Department of the State within the stipulated time..The study tour allegedly did not make out any prominent feature or reveal any substantial and specific importance so as to go to Israel thereby delegating certain qualified officers from the office of DGIPR..In view of this, the petitioners prayed from the Court to call for records regarding the visit and inform the High Court as to what special knowledge officials have acquired and how it will benefit the country.