The Supreme Court observed that it may set up a technical committee to investigate the allegations of snooping by using the Pegasus spyware and will pass an order on the matter next week. A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana said the order, which was to be pronounced earlier, will now be delivered next week.
Justice Ramana said that the court wanted to pass orders this week but the orders were deferred as some members, who the court had wanted to be part of the technical committee, had expressed personal difficulties to be on the committee. The top court on September 13 had reserved its order, saying it only wanted to know whether or not the Centre used the Pegasus spyware through illegal methods to allegedly snoop on citizens.
On September 13, the Centre had told the Supreme Court that due to national security reasons it does not wish to file a detailed affidavit clarifying whether Pegasus spyware was used or not, in its response to a batch of petitions seeking an independent probe into the alleged snooping.
The pleas seeking an independent probe are related to reports of alleged snooping by government agencies on eminent citizens, politicians and scribes by using Israeli firm NSO’s spyware Pegasus. An international media consortium has reported that over 300 verified Indian mobile phone numbers were on the list of potential targets for surveillance using Pegasus spyware.
