A bench of Chief Justice NV Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli said the three-member committee would be headed by former apex court judge RV Raveendran. The Center had refused to file a detailed affidavit in the matter citing national security.
The top court asked the expert panel to prepare its report expeditiously and fixed the next hearing on the petitions after eight weeks.
In its opening remarks, the top court said, “We live in the information age and we must understand that technology is important, but it is important to protect the right to privacy.”
“Every citizen of the country should be protected from violation of their right to privacy and the allegation of Pegasus espionage is cold in nature and the court should find out the truth,” the top court said.
Here are the key points of observation of the court-
* The Supreme Court said that there is no specific rebuttal by the Center in this issue, thus we have no option but to prima facie accept the arguments of the petitioner and we appoint an expert committee whose work will be looked into by the court. Will go
* SC said that the violation of right to privacy should be investigated.
* Indiscriminate violation of the right to privacy of citizens cannot be allowed, the SC said. “There is a serious concern about the involvement of a foreign agency by monitoring the Indians,” the court said.
* The committee has been constituted to investigate the lies in the Pegasus row and discover the truth, the court said.
* It has selected eminent experts to be part of the three-member committee.
* The committee will be headed by former Supreme Court judge RV Raveendran. The other members will be Alok Joshi and Sandeep Oberoi.
* The apex court further observed that initially when the petitions were filed, the court was not satisfied with the petitions filed on the basis of newspaper reports, however, several other petitions were filed by the direct aggrieved persons.
* The court said it was forced to appoint the committee as the Centre’s response to the allegation of espionage was unclear.
* The court said it gave the Center ample opportunity to assist the court and respond to the allegation but the Centre’s limited affidavit did not shed any light on the issue.
* The court said that the free pass cannot be given to the government raising issues of national security and the court cannot remain a mute spectator when there are serious allegations of violation of the rights of citizens.
* The court further said that it prima facie accepts the allegations leveled in the petition on Pegasus snooping and appoints a committee to get to the bottom of the matter.
* The Supreme Court asked the committee to thoroughly investigate the allegations and place the report before the court and fix the date of hearing after 8 weeks.
Quick edit: Appointment of technical committee in Pegasus case is the right move
Pegasus spyware: all you need to know
what is pegasus spyware
A spyware developed by an Israeli firm has once again been used for surveillance against journalists, human rights activists and business executives.
Smartphones were hacked to collect confidential information, according to an investigation by The Washington Post and 16 media partners.
Who developed Pegasus?
The developers of the “Pegsus” software, the NSO Group, originally licensed it to governments to track terrorists and criminals.
How does this work?
* Pegasus is a spyware used to spy on handsets. It has been claimed that even a missed video call on WhatsApp can give Pegasus full access to users’ smartphones.
* It enables the handset to be opened and the operator to install spyware on the device without the owner’s knowledge.
* This resulted in the hacker accessing user data including passwords, contacts, calendar events, text messages and even live voice calls from messaging apps.
2019 attack and whatsapp complaint
* After the 2019 attacks, WhatsApp said in its complaint filed in California that the attack took place through its video calling feature.
* This said, Pegasus is capable of monitoring at three levels: initial data extraction, passive monitoring and active collection.
* The software was used to hijack smartphones running iOS, Android and Blackberry operating systems.
* The spyware leaves no trace on the device, consumes minimal battery, memory and data and comes with a self-destruct option that can be used at any time, the complaint further added.
Earlier Supreme Court comment
* The bench had said that it intends to set up an expert committee to investigate reports accusing the government of using the Israeli software Pegasus to spy on politicians, activists and journalists.
* The top court had on September 13 said it would pass an interim order in two-three days on petitions seeking an independent probe into the alleged Pegasus espionage case.
* Several petitions are pending before the top court, seeking a court-monitored probe into reports of the government using the Israeli software Pegasus to allegedly spy on politicians, activists and journalists.
* The Center had earlier told the apex court that it was ready to set up a committee of independent experts to probe all aspects of the alleged Pegasus espionage controversy.
* It had said that which software was used for interception in the interest of national security cannot be open to public debate.
petition filed in court
* Several petitions were filed before the apex court by senior journalist N Ram and Shashi Kumar, Rajya Sabha Communist Party of India Marxist (Marxist) MP John Brittas and advocate ML Sharma, former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha and RSS ideologue KN Govindacharya.
*Journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, snm abdi, Prem Shankar Jha, Rupesh Kumar Singh and Ipsa Shatakshi, who are reportedly on the possible list of spying targets of Pegasus spyware, had also approached the top court along with The Editors Guild of India (EGI).
* The petitions sought a probe headed by a sitting or retired judge of the apex court to probe the alleged espionage.
* The petition states that targeted surveillance using military-grade spyware is an unacceptable violation of the right to privacy which has been recognized as a fundamental right under Articles 14, 19 and 21 by the Supreme Court in the KS Puttaswamy case.
(with inputs from agencies)Watch Pegasus spyware case: SC appoints 3-member committee to probe alleged espionage controversy
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