Today, On 7th March, The Supreme Court announced that it will hear the Pegasus spyware case in April, addressing multiple petitions demanding an investigation. The petitions allege that the Indian government used the spyware to surveil individuals. It is claimed that electronic devices, including mobile phones, were infected for snooping. The case raises significant concerns about privacy and state surveillance.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court announced that the case concerning the alleged use of Pegasus spyware by the Government of India to surveil journalists, judges, activists, and others will be heard in April.
The issue was brought before a Bench of Justices Surya Kant and N. Kotiswar Singh, who expressed surprise at the matter’s listing.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta requested,
“It is after a long time. Can it be in the first week of April?”
Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, representing various petitioners, remarked,
“This is the Pegasus issue. This is a large batch of cases.”
The Bench responded,
“We will take it up sometime in April. Even we did not know this was coming up. We had ordered for this to be listed back in December.”
The case has been scheduled for hearing on April 22.
The Court is currently addressing multiple petitions calling for an investigation into allegations that the Indian government used Pegasus spyware to surveil individuals by compromising their electronic devices, such as mobile phones.
NSO Group, based in Israel, is renowned for its Pegasus spyware, which it claims is sold exclusively to “vetted governments” and not to private entities; however, the company does not disclose which governments purchase the controversial software.
In 2021, an international consortium of news outlets, including the Indian portal The Wire, published a series of reports suggesting that this spyware may have been used to compromise the mobile devices of various individuals, including Indian journalists, activists, lawyers, officials, and even a former Supreme Court judge.
The reports referenced a list of phone numbers identified as potential targets. Analysis conducted by a team from Amnesty International revealed that some of these numbers showed evidence of successful Pegasus infections, while others displayed signs of attempted infections.
Following these reports, the current petitions were filed in the Supreme Court.
The petitioners include advocate ML Sharma, Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas, Director of the Hindu Group N. Ram, founder of Asianet Sashi Kumar, the Editors Guild of India, and journalists Rupesh Kumar Singh, Ipsa Shatakshi, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, SNM Abidi, and Prem Shankar Jha.
Subsequently, the Supreme Court established a three-member expert committee to investigate the matter.
The committee, led by former Supreme Court Justice RV Raveendran, submitted its findings to the Court in July 2022.
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It also included Alok Joshi, a former IPS officer, and Dr. Sundeep Oberoi, Chairman of the Sub Committee in the International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission/Joint Technical Committee.
In its report, the committee determined that Pegasus spyware was not present in any of the twenty-nine mobile phones it examined. While some malware was detected on five of the devices, it was confirmed that this was not Pegasus.
Notably, the committee indicated that the Government of India did not provide assistance during its investigation. Since the report’s submission, there has been little progress on the matter.
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