The Supreme Court said Today (April 22) it will hear pleas on April 29 regarding alleged illegal surveillance using Pegasus spyware. Petitioners say key investigation reports are still not shared by the authorities.
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NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court of India today decided to hear next week a group of petitions related to the alleged misuse of Pegasus spyware for spying on journalists and other people.
A bench led by Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh has fixed the hearing for April 29, as the matter could not be taken up this week due to lack of time.
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Senior advocate Shyam Divan, who is representing some of the petitioners in the case, informed the Supreme Court that although the court had earlier asked for the technical panel’s reports to be shared, the petitioners have not received any such documents.
He told the court,
“This court will have to pass some directions because we have not received the reports. Kindly hear it urgently.”
In response, the bench directed that the matter should be listed for hearing next week.
Earlier, on March 7, the court had scheduled April 22 for hearing the case.
The case involves allegations that Pegasus, a spyware developed by an Israeli company, was used without permission to spy on people in India. On August 25, 2022, the Supreme Court had said that a technical panel formed to investigate the issue found some malware in 5 out of 29 mobile phones it examined. However, the court clarified that it could not be confirmed that Pegasus spyware was actually used.
After reviewing a report submitted by former Supreme Court judge R V Raveendran, the court said that the central government did not cooperate with the investigation into Pegasus.
In 2021, the Supreme Court had ordered a detailed investigation into the claims that Indian government agencies were using the Pegasus spyware to monitor politicians, journalists, and activists. For this, the court had set up a technical committee and a supervisory committee.
The supervisory committee gave a “lengthy” report in three parts. One part of the report advised that laws should be changed to better protect people’s right to privacy and also to strengthen the country’s cyber security.
The technical panel included three cyber experts who had deep knowledge in the fields of digital forensics, cyber security, networks, and hardware. The Supreme Court asked this panel to “inquire, investigate and determine” whether Pegasus spyware was used to spy on Indian citizens. Justice Raveendran was put in charge of monitoring their investigation.
The members of this technical panel were Naveen Kumar Chaudhary, Prabaharan P, and Ashwin Anil Gumaste. Justice Raveendran was supported in the monitoring task by former IPS officer Alok Joshi and cyber security expert Sundeep Oberoi.
According to the Supreme Court’s order, the probe team was given the power to look into what actions the Central government had taken after the media reported in 2019 that Indian citizens’ WhatsApp accounts were being hacked using Pegasus spyware.
The court also asked the panel to find out whether the Pegasus software was ever bought by the central government, any state government, or their agencies, and whether it was used against Indian citizens.
Earlier, an international media group had revealed that more than 300 Indian mobile numbers were found on a list of possible targets for spying through Pegasus software.
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