Pegasus- All You Want To Know About Supreme Court Appointed Committee-Members, Terms Of Reference, Procedure

The Supreme Court ordered the constitution of an independent expert committee to look into the allegations of widespread and targeted surveillance of politicians, journalists, activist etc using the Pegasus spyware.Compelling Circumstances To Appoint Expert committeeThe CJI NV Ramana led bench declined the Centre's plea to allow them to appoint an Expert Committee for the purposes of investigating the allegations. The court said it is appointing an Expert Committee in view of the following compelling circumstances:i. Right to privacy and freedom of speech are alleged to be impacted, which needs to be examined. ii. The entire citizenry is affected by such allegations due to the potential chilling effect. iii. No clear stand taken by the Union of India regarding actions taken by it. iv. Seriousness accorded to the allegations by foreign countries and involvement of foreign parties. v. Possibility that some foreign authority, agency or private entity is involved in placing citizens of this country under surveillance. vi. Allegations that the Union or State Governments are party to the rights' deprivations of the citizens. vii. Limitation under writ jurisdiction to delve into factual aspects. For instance, even the question of usage of the technology on citizens, which is the jurisdictional fact, is disputed and requires further factual examinationJustice RV Raveendran To OverseeThe court constituted three member technical committee which will be overseen by Justice R.V. Raveendran, former Judge, Supreme Court of India, who will be assisted by the following personsi. Mr. Alok Joshi, former IPS officer (1976 batch) who has immense and diverse investigative experience and technical knowledge. He has worked as the Joint Director, Intelligence Bureau, the Secretary(R), Research and Analysis Wing and Chairman, National Technical Research Organisation.ii. Dr. Sundeep Oberoi, Chairman, ISO/IEC JTC1 SC7 (International Organisation of Standardisation/ International ElectroTechnical Commission/Joint Technical Committee), a subcommittee which develops and facilitates standards within the field of software products and systems. Dr. Oberoi is also a part of the Advisory Board of Cyber Security Education and Research Centre at Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi. He is globally recognized as a cyber security expert. Three member technical committee Three member technical committee consists of the following members:i. Dr. Naveen Kumar Chaudhary, Professor (Cyber Security and Digital Forensics) and Dean, National Forensic Sciences University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat. Dr. Chaudhary has over two decades of experience as an academician, cyber security enabler and cyber security expert. He specializes in cyber security policy, network vulnerability assessment and penetration testing.ii. Dr. Prabaharan P., Professor (School of Engineering), Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri, Kerala. He has two decades of experience in computer science and security areas. His areas of interest are malware detection, critical infrastructural security, complex binary analysis, AI and machine learning. He has many publications in reputed journals.iii. Dr. Ashwin Anil Gumaste, Institute Chair Associate Professor (Computer Science and Engineering), Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Maharashtra. He has been granted 20 US patents and has published over 150 papers and authored 3 books in his field. He has received several National awards including the Vikram Sarabhai Research Award (2012) and Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology (2018). He has also held the position of Visiting Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USATerms of ReferenceA. To enquire, investigate and determine:i. Whether the Pegasus suite of spyware was used on phones or other devices of the citizens of India to access stored data, eavesdrop on conversations, intercept information and/or for any other purposes not explicitly stated herein? ii. The details of the victims and/or persons affected by such a spyware attack.iii. What steps/actions have been taken by the RespondentUnion of India after reports were published in the year 2019 about hacking of WhatsApp accounts of Indian citizens, using the Pegasus suite of spyware. iv. Whether any Pegasus suite of spyware was acquired by the Respondent Union of India, or any State Government, or any central or state agency for use against the citizens of India? v. If any governmental agency has used the Pegasus suite of spyware on the citizens of this country, under what law, rule, guideline, protocol or lawful procedure was such deployment made? vi. If any domestic entity/person has used the spyware on the citizens of this country, then is ...

Pegasus- All You Want To Know About Supreme Court Appointed Committee-Members, Terms Of Reference, Procedure

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