New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Indian government on petitions seeking various prayers, including a court-monitored inquiry, judicial inquiry and a direction to the government on whether it had used Pegasus software to spy on citizens. Or not. .
A bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana sought the Centre’s response on the petitions and said it would take up the matter after 10 days and see what course should be adopted.
While hearing the matter, the Supreme Court said, ‘We are not going to disclose anything to protect the nation. Some well-known people are accusing the phone of spying, now this can also be done but only with the permission of the competent. Right.”
Responding to the court’s question, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that the Indian government has no problem in disclosing the details to an expert group but discussing such things in public could be a threat to national security.
SG Tushar Mehta said, “We are all responsible citizens in our own right. The government has no objection to saying this before an expert group. Suppose a terrorist organization uses technology to communicate with a sleeper cell. And let’s say we’re not using Pegasus, they’ll arrange the device in such a way that it’s not compatible with Pegasus.”
“We can convey this to a committee of experts and it will be a neutral body. Would you expect, as a Constitutional Court, that such issues would be disclosed before the court and put up for public debate? The committee will place its report before the court. But how can we sensationalise the issue,” argued the SG.
To this, a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana said that there is no intention of compromising on national security.
“We as a court and you as SG and all lawyers as officers of the court, none of us would like to compromise with the security of the nation. To protect the nation, we are not going to disclose anything. What’s the problem if the authority files an affidavit before us?” The court asked.
The Court was hearing a bunch of petitions filed by Advocate ML Sharma, Journalist N Ram and Sasikumar, and some other opposition leaders and advocates including the Editors Guild.
They relate to reports of alleged spying by government agencies on eminent citizens, politicians and scholars using spyware Pegasus from the Israeli firm NSO.
An international media association has reported that more than 300 verified Indian mobile phone numbers were on the list of potential targets for surveillance using Pegasus spyware.
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