Pegasus snooping row: SC adjourns hearing of case for April 22

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Centre, told a bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotishwar Singh that the matter came after a long time and urged to hear it in April.

The bench then posted the case for hearing on April 22.

The top court had constituted technical committee and overseeing committee, on the alleged use of Pegasus spyware to snoop on phones of politicians, activists and journalists.

The apex court had appointed a committee headed by a former top court judge to look into Pegasus's snooping allegations.

The committee, headed by Justice (retd.) Raveendran was tasked to oversee the functioning of the technical committee and was assisted by Alok Joshi, former IPS officer and Dr. Sundeep Oberoi, Chairman, Sub-Committee in (International Organisation of Standardisation/International Electro-Technical Commission/Joint Technical Committee).

The three members of the technical committee consisted Dr Naveen Kumar Chaudhary, Professor (Cyber Security and Digital Forensics) and Dean, National Forensic Sciences University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat; Dr Prabaharan P, Professor (School of Engineering), Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri, Kerala; and Dr Ashwin Anil Gumaste, Institute Chair Associate Professor (Computer Science and Engineering), Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Maharashtra.

In its report, the committee concluded that spyware was not found in the 29 mobile phones it examined, but malware was found in five mobile phones.

The three-member technical committee stated that malware was found in five out of 29 mobile phones, but there is no conclusive proof of Pegasus spyware.

The technical committee and overseeing committee had informed the bench that the government of India did not cooperate in its probe.

Reports contain information about malware, information of public research material, and material extracted from private mobile instruments, which may contain confidential information, the Committee said.

The top court had said that in a democratic country governed by the rule of law, "indiscriminate spying on individuals cannot be allowed" and ordered the three-member committee, headed by former top court judge RV Raveendran.

Several pleas were filed before the top court on the snooping row by senior journalists N Ram and Sashi Kumar, Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas of the Communist Marxist Party of India (Marxist), advocate ML Sharma, former Union minister Yashwant Sinha, and RSS ideologue KN Govindacharya.

Journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, SNM Abdi, Prem Shankar Jha, Rupesh Kumar Singh and Ipsa Shatakshi, who are reported to be on the potential list of snoop targets of Pegasus spyware, had also approached the top court along with The Editors Guild of India (EGI), among others.

The pleas had sought inquiry headed by a sitting or retired judge of top court to investigate into the alleged snooping.

The petition had said that the targeted surveillance using military-grade spyware is an unacceptable violation of the right to privacy, which has been held to be a fundamental right under Articles 14, 19 and 21 by the Supreme Court in the KS Puttaswamy case. (ANI)