SC to hear Pegasus snooping case on April 22

The Supreme Court on Friday said it will on April 22 hear a bunch of petitions related to the Pegasus snooping case.

The matter relates to allegations that the Pegasus spyware was used to target Indian politicians, activists, journalists, and businesspersons.

The case was last effectively heard in August 2022.A bench of justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh deferred the hearing as it took up journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta’s petition.

It noted several petitions about the same matter were not listed with Thakurta’s plea.Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, representing the Union government, and senior counsel Kapil Sibal, appearing for Thakurta, agreed on the hearing of the matter on another day when all related petitions could be listed together.A Supreme Court-appointed panel of experts submitted its findings in August 2022 after a forensic analysis of 29 mobile devices voluntarily submitted for examination.

The committee was unable to conclusively determine whether Pegasus spyware was used.

The panel found traces of malware in five phones, but there was no definitive proof that it was Pegasus.A key aspect of the committee’s report was that the Union government did not cooperate with the probe.

The report recommended new laws and safeguards to prevent unlawful surveillance and cyber intrusions.The panel presented two technical reports.

Former Supreme Court judge RV Raveendran presented a separate analysis.

Certain sections of the findings remained confidential due to the presence of private information.

Justice Raveendran’s report was made public.In July 2021, a consortium of media organisations and investigative journalists reported that the spyware was used to target 50,000 phone numbers worldwide, including those of Indian politicians, activists, journalists, and businessmen.

The list included prominent names such as Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, political strategist Prashant Kishor, former election commissioner Ashok Lavasa, and Union ministers Prahlad Patel and Ashwini Vaishnaw.Israeli cyber-intelligence firm NSO Group’s Pegasus is a military-grade spyware capable of remotely infiltrating mobile devices, enabling surveillance of calls, messages, photos, and even activating the microphone or camera.

The NSO Group has maintained that Pegasus is only sold to government agencies for counterterrorism and law enforcement purposes.The Supreme Court intervened in October 2021 in the matter in response to advocate ML Sharma’s public interest litigation.

It rejected the government’s argument that national security concerns precluded an independent investigation.

The court emphasised that invoking national security could not provide a “free pass” against allegations of privacy violations.

Subsequently, Thakurta also moved his plea.

Cybersecurity experts and forensic analysts assisted the Justice Raveendran-led probe committee.

The panel included experts from institutions such as the National Forensic Sciences University (Gandhinagar), Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham in Kerala, and the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.

The committee faced multiple deadline extensions before submitting its final report in August 2022.The committee was mandated to determine whether the Pegasus spyware was used on phones or other devices to access stored data, eavesdrop on conversations, intercept information, etc.

The mandate also included determining details of those targeted with the spyware, the actions taken following the alleged illegal infiltration, whether the government acquired Pegasus to spy on Indian citizens, and if it did, under what rules or guidelines.