Slamming UPA government's move on snoopgate probe, Narendra Modi's close aide Amit Shah today said it had no "moral or constitutional authority" to take decision on it at the fag-end of its tenure.        

He blamed Congress' "dirty tricks department" for the government's move to appoint a judge to probe allegation of snooping of a young woman in Gujarat before the Lok Sabha poll process comes to an end on May 16.     

The illegal surveillance was allegedly done at the behest of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Shah was the Home Minister of the state during that period. There have been allegations that Shah himself was in regular touch with the officials involved in the alleged snooping.        

"It is the Congress dirty tricks department which is behind the move to appoint the judge at the fag-end of the government's tenure," he said at a press conference in Varanasi.   Shah alleged that the Manmohan Singh dispensation has "lost constitutional and moral authority" to appoint a judge to conduct the probe "as the government is going".          

"The moral authority of the UPA government has ended. It has no constitutional authority either. Still, if they are doing this, they do not know why their government is going."