Supreme Court adjourns hearing of the case on Tuesday Pegasus The matter followed an urgent request by Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Govt.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana was Hearing of the case on February 23Mainly at the point of an interim report by the court’s technical committee investigating allegations of the government using Israeli military-grade software to spy on civilians.
Appearing before Chief Justice NV Ramana, the top law officer urged the court to adjourn the hearing to February 25.
Mr Mehta said he was “on his feet” before another bench of the court headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar in a batch of petitions challenging various provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The Solicitor-General said that there is a possibility that he may also start his arguments before a bench of Justice Khanwilkar in the next few hours.
“Okay. Please inform others,” Chief Justice Ramana told Mr. Mehta.
Pegasus Case The 46-page order on October 27 last year was listed for hearing on February 23, nearly four months after the technical committee was constituted under the supervision of former Supreme Court judge Justice RV Raveendran. This committee has submitted an interim report to the court.
Senior journalist N. The 12 Pegasus petitions, including one by Ram and Shashi Kumar, were listed before a three-judge bench of the CJI, Justices Surya Kant and Hema Kohli.
The court may also consider an application recently filed by advocate ML Sharma regarding allegations new York Times Reports that India bought Pegasus spyware from Israel.
News reports said that various sections of people ranging from journalists, activists, parliamentarians, government officials, lawyers and even court employees were targeted using Pegasus.
The court had tasked the technical committee to “investigate, investigate and determine” whether “the Pegasus suite of spyware was used to access data stored on the phones or other devices of citizens of India, to monitor conversations, intercept information and / or was done for some other purpose”.
Other questions for the committee included whether Pegasus was used by the Center or the state or any of its agencies against its own citizens, whether it was authorized and under what law or procedure.
Supreme Court wanted committee to first dive deeper into public cues alleged use of spyware year ago.
The court wanted the committee to dig into the steps taken by the government “after the publication of reports about hacking of WhatsApp accounts of Indian citizens in the year 2019, using the Pegasus suite of spyware.”
The court also wanted the committee to use its expertise to examine existing surveillance laws and procedures to see how much they value and protect the privacy of citizens.
The court had also asked the committee to suggest that the fundamental right to privacy of citizens can be prevented from being attacked through illegal surveillance on state and non-state players. It had urged the Justice Raveendran panel to suggest ways to enhance and improve the cyber security of the country and its assets.
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