Pegasus Probe Committee Report To Remain Sealed In Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has decided to keep sealed the reports submitted by the technical committee and the Overseeing Judge (former Supreme Court judge Justice RV Raveendran) who were tasked with probing the allegations of surveillance of mobile devices using the Israeli spyware Pegasus.

"The sealed covers were opened in the Court and we read out some portions of the said Reports. Thereafter, the Reports were re-sealed and kept in the safe custody of the Secretary General of this Court, who shall make it available as and when required by the Court", the Court stated in the order passed today (August 25).

The case will be listed after four weeks.

Today morning, Chief Justice of India NV Ramana had opened the report and read out few portions. He stated that as per the report of the technical committee, five out of the 29 mobile phones produced before it were found to have been infected with some malware. However, it was not clear for the committee if it was Pegasus malware.

The CJI further said that as per the technical committee, the Government of India did not cooperate with it.

"One thing committee has said, Government of India has not cooperated. The same stand you took here, you have taken there..." CJI Ramana told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.

Solicitor General said that he is not aware of that.

The CJI further informed that many persons, who submitted the mobile devices for examination, requested the committee to keep the report confidential, as report contains sensitive personal information.

Justice Raveendran, the overseeing judge, submitted another report with certain recommendations on providing legal regime for data privacy and cyber security. Though the CJI said in court that the report of the judge could be publicised, in the order, it has been decided to keep both the reports sealed.

It was in October 2021 that the Court constituted the committee to probe into the allegations of targeted surveillance of journalists and activists using the Pegasus spyware. The order was passed after the Union Government refused to take a clear stand whether it has purchased the spyware or not.

Case Title : ML Sharma versus Union of India and others and connected cases WP(Crl) 314/2021 and connected matters.

Click here to read/downlaod the order