New Delhi: The leak of information related to India’s Scorpene submarines is being viewed “very seriously”, but is “not a matter of much worry”, navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba said on Monday.

The military leader was making his first comments after more than 22,000 pages of data detailing the vessels’ capabilities became public.

“Any leak of information is viewed very seriously. We have viewed the leak of Scorpene data very seriously and we have asked (French firm) DCNS to launch an urgent investigation into this,” the navy chief said here.

He said the defence ministry had set up a high-level committee to investigate the matter.

“Based on the report of the committee, we will see what mitigation measures need to be taken,” he said.

Asked how serious a concern the leak was, the Lanba said, “This is not a matter of much worry. The committee is analysing and they will see what data has been compromised and what mitigation steps have to be taken.”

The high-level committee is expected to submit a detailed report to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar by September 20.

More than 22,000 pages of top secret data on the capabilities of six highly advanced submarines being built for the Indian navy in Mumbai, in collaboration with French company DCNS, have been leaked.

Meanwhile, DCNS has approached the Australian Supreme Court seeking an injunction against ‘The Australian’ from further publishing the leaked documents on India’s Scorpene submarine project.

In response to an email from IANS, DCNS Head of Media Relations Emmanuel Gaudez said: “To be precise, DCNS is instructing a demand to The Australian in order to remove from its website the documents which it has published online and prevent the publishing of other documents.”

The company DCNS, which is at the centre of a global submarine data leak scandal, wants to prevent the Aussie publication, The Australian, from releasing any more confidential data contained in 22,400 secret documents because it may cause harm to its customer — the Indian Navy.

The company is also seeking a court order to force The Australian to hand over the documents and remove them from its website.

“The publication of this highly valuable document causes a direct harm to DCNS and its customer in terms of spread of sensitive and restricted information, image and reputation,” says an affidavit by DCNS’ lawyer Justine Munsie.

The Australian has redacted the most sensitive details from the documents before their publication.