The Supreme Court on Friday, July 30, agreed to hear the plea filed by journalists N Ram and Sashi Kumar seeking a probe headed by a retired or sitting judge into the sensational Pegasus snooping allegations that have triggered a political row in India.
Senior advocate and Congress leader Kapil Sibal appeared for the petitioners in the Supreme Court on Friday and argued for an urgent hearing, stating that the civil liberties of many individuals has been put under surveillance. Chief Justice of India Justice NV Ramana said that the court will hear the case next week.
In the petition, N Ram, who is the former Chief Editor of The Hindu, and Sashi Kumar, the founder of Asianet news channel, had asked the Union government to disclose whether it or any of its agencies obtained a license for or have used the Israeli spyware called Pegasus “directly or indirectly to carry out surveillance on Indian citizens.”
The petition had said that the Union government has “made absolutely no attempt” to conduct any credible investigation into these “extremely concerning allegations of mass surveillance,” more so, as the NSO Group which created Pegasus has said that it only deals with “vetted governments.”
“Such mass surveillance using a military-grade spyware abridges several fundamental rights and appears to represent an attempt to infiltrate, attack and destabilise independent institutions that act as critical pillars of our democratic set-up,” N Ram and Sashi Kumar have said in their petition. “It is also concerning to note that the Respondents (Union government, IT Ministry and Ministry of Communications) have not categorically ruled out obtaining Pegasus licenses to conduct surveillance in their response, and have taken no steps to ensure a credible and independent investigation into these extremely serious allegations."
This is the third petition filed in the apex court seeking a probe into the investigative reports published by 17 global media outlets that over 300 verified numbers— including those belonging to two ministers, over 40 journalists, three opposition leaders and one sitting judge, besides scores of businesspersons and activists in India— could have been possible targets of Israeli spyware Pegasus.