Pegasus Snooping : Supreme Court To Hear Next Week Senior Journalists' Plea For Judicial Probe

In a significant development, the Supreme Court on Friday agreed to list next week a PIL filed by veteran journalists N Ram and Sashi Kumar seeking a probe by a retired or a sitting Supreme Court judge into the Pegasus snooping row.The PIL was mentioned today before the Chief Justice of India NV Ramana by Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal today morning. Mr. Sibal urged that Pegasus has wide-reaching consequences so far as civil liberties are concerned, not only in India but world-wide also, and that the matter is urgent, concerning national security, involving surveillance of opposition leaders, journalists and even the judiciary."This is an urgent matter. Making waves not just in India but internationally", Sibal said. Senior Advocate Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi, also added that the Registry was not listing matters for urgent mentioning. Agreeing to this request, the CJI agreed to list the matter next week. "We will hear it next week", CJI replied.The Petitioners also seek a direction to Union of India to disclose if the Government of India or any of its agencies have obtained license(s) for Pegasus spyware and/or used/employed it, either directly or indirectly, to conduct surveillance in any manner whatsoeverAccording to the petitioners, the forensic analysis of several mobile phones belonging to persons targeted for surveillance by the Security Lab of Amnesty International have confirmed Pegasus-induced security breaches.The Petitioners submitted that global investigation involving several leading publications around the world (including inter alia The Guardian (UK), Le Monde and Radio France (France), The Washington Post and Frontline (USA), Haaretz (Israel) and the Wire (India)) has revealed that more than 142 (one hundred and forty-two) persons, including journalists, lawyers, government ministers, opposition politicians, constitutional functionaries and civil society activists from India have been identified as potential targets for surveillance using Pegasus software. The writ petition also seeks a direction to the Union of India @GoI_MeitY to disclose if it or any of its agencies have used #PegasusSpyware either directly or indirectly to conduct #surveillance in any manner.#SupremeCourt #PegasusSnoopgate #NRam pic.twitter.com/PPIFIFwxlB— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) July 27, 2021

Pegasus Snooping : Supreme Court To Hear Next Week Senior Journalists' Plea For Judicial Probe

Mehal Jain