The Supreme Court will rule tomorrow on a slew of petitions demanding a court-supervised investigation into unlawful spying involving NSO Group’s Pegasus software. On September 13, the Supreme Court reserved its decision on the case. Last month, the Supreme Court said that it would form a committee of technical experts to investigate the situation. CJI Ramana had previously stated that the order was taking time because several of the court’s experts had in mind to serve on the committee had been rejected due to personal reasons.
The Centre has “unequivocally” refuted all charges of unlawful spying. However, the petitioners pointed out that the Centre’s affidavit did not state whether it had acquired or deployed Pegasus.
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Following this, the Court inquired as to whether the government intended to file any further affidavits. The Centre’s Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Bench that the issue was loaded with “national security considerations” and that the government did not want to disclose specifics in a public affidavit to be submitted in court and make it a topic of public discussion.
The Solicitor General had asked the Court to authorise the formation of such a panel, but the petitioners protested. We are merely interested, in light of reports that certain software was used against certain people, journalists, attorneys, and others, to learn if the government utilised this software in any way that was not permitted by law.”
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The requests for an impartial investigation are in response to revelations of government agencies eavesdropping on prominent residents, lawmakers, and scribes using Israeli firm NSO’s malware Pegasus. Over 300 confirmed Indian mobile phone numbers were on a list of prospective targets for monitoring using Pegasus malware, according to an international media consortium.
