SC to hear pleas seeking probe into Pegasus spyware use on April 22

The Supreme Court on Friday said it would hear on April 22 pleas seeking a probe into the alleged unauthorised use of Pegasus spyware for surveillance of journalists among others.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh deferred the hearing after solicitor general Tushar Mehta, seeking an adjournment, said the matter had come up after a long time.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the petitioners, said only two petitions were listed on Friday and there were other connected petitions, which required a hearing.

The bench directed the registry to fix all the matters on the issue on April 22.

On August 25, 2022, the top court said the technical panel appointed by it to probe the unauthorised use of Pegasus found some malware in five of 29 examined cellphones but it could not be held that the Israeli spyware was used.

After perusing the report submitted by former apex court Justice R V Raveendran, the top court said the Central government did not cooperate with the Pegasus probe.

The top court in 2021 ordered a probe into the allegations of the use of Israeli spyware by government agencies for targeted surveillance of politicians, journalists, and activists and appointed technical and supervisory committees to examine the matter.

The overseeing panel has submitted a "lengthy" three-part report, one of which suggested amending the law to protect citizens' right to privacy and ensure the nation's cyber security, it had said.

The technical panel, which included three experts on cyber security, digital forensics, networks, and hardware, was asked to "inquire, investigate and determine" whether Pegasus spyware was used for snooping on citizens and their probe would be monitored by Raveendran.

The panel members were Naveen Kumar Chaudhary, Prabaharan P, and Ashwin Anil Gumaste.

Justice Raveendran, who headed the monitoring panel, was assisted by former IPS officer Alok Joshi and cyber security expert Sundeep Oberoi in monitoring the inquiry of the technical panel.

The apex court, in its order, had said the probe panel would be empowered to enquire and investigate what steps or actions were taken by the Centre after reports were published in 2019 on the hacking of WhatsApp accounts of Indian citizens using the Pegasus suite of spyware.

Also whether any Pegasus suite was acquired by the Union of India, or any state government, or any central or state agency for use against the citizens of India, it added.

An international media consortium had reported that over 300 verified Indian cellphone numbers were on the list of potential targets for surveillance using the Pegasus spyware.