We Only Want To Know If Govt Has Used Pegasus Through Illegal Methods : Supreme Court [Court Room Exchange]

The Centre on Monday told the Supreme Court that it has nothing more to say on the Pegasus issue than what has been said by its first and only affidavit (described as "limited" by the court)- that it does not deem it appropriate to state whether any particular software was employed or not, that there has been no illegal interception, and that it is willing to quell the concerns of the petitioners by constituting an expert inquiry committee."We have considered it and the position is like this- there are petitions before Your Lordships which seek an enquiry into the issue because, according to them, there has been some unauthorised interception. I have already filed an affidavit stating that, as per statutory regime available in India in the Telegraph Act and Information Technology Act in general and section 69 of the Information Technology Act in particular and the rules framed thereunder, whatever actions are taken are in accordance with this regime", began SG Tushar Mehta."That is my case. That is what the central government, as a responsible body, informed the Parliament as well. Nonetheless, the issue is important and it is before Your Lordships. Therefore, I have placed one affidavit, showing my willingness that we will constitute a committee of domain experts, who will not be connected to the government, to inquire into the issue", he continued.CJ N. V. Ramana pointed out that the reason why the government was given time on the last occasion was to enable them to introspect if they wanted to file another affidavit."Last time, the petitioners were insisting that the central government should make a statement on affidavit whether they are using a particular software or not. Having considered the matter, it is the feeling of the government that such issues can't be debated or placed on affidavits. It must be gone into by domain experts and the report will be before Your Lordships, which would contain everything. Section 69 permits interception for combating terrorism, terror groups, illegal terror funding, drugs, violence etc. There are several statutory stipulations provided for the same. Whether it is done through 'A' software or 'B' software, we feel it is not a subject matter of debate or an affidavit.""Nonetheless, we have nothing to hide and to remove any doubt, we will, on our own saying, constitute a committee of domain experts unconnected by the government- government servants or not even remotely connected to the government- they will go into these questions. Some of the petitioners say their numbers were also intercepted. They can provide their numbers and that can be gone into. Then the report will come before Your Lordships. Everything will be absolutely fair and transparent. The central government's take is that the insistence whether a particular software was used or not may not be subject matter of public debate. It has its own pitfalls- there are targeted groups, terror groups- they better not know which software is being used to combat their activities", repeated the SG."So it cannot be the subject matter of any proceedings whether a software was used or not?", the CJ inquired from the SG."It may be a subject matter of the writ petitions. The committee will go into it and place it before you. But it cannot be a part of public discourse. That is why we don't wish to place it on record in the larger national interest, in the interest of the security of the nation", replied the SG.At this, Justice Surya Kant observed: "The question of national security arose at the previous date also. We clearly said that nobody is interested in the disclosure of anything, in court or on any other platform, which may tend to raise an issue of national integrity or national security, whether external or internal. That is a very sensitive issue. And we are all concerned about it. The only limited affidavit that we expected you to file was that- there are citizens who are before us alleging the violation of the right to privacy under Article 21, and if you can clarify in your affidavit that these rights are not been violated, and if those have been violated, whether there is permission by the requisite agency, or if there is no permission, has it been done by an outside agency. That it is your concern also and everybody's concern also- if outside agencies are to snoop, interfere, spy into private phones. We are only on the limited class of citizenry who are alleging the violation of the right to privacy. National security, we will definitely keep in mind that it cannot be subject matter of the present proceedings" The SG agreed that the same national security concerns were acknowledged by the bench and even the petitioners' counsel at the previous hearing.'Your Own Minister Said Government Has Taken Note Of Spyware Affecting Some Users In 2019'- CJCJ Ramana noted, "We are again reiterating that we are not interested in any manner or in any way to know the issues which are concerned about the security or the...

We Only Want To Know If Govt Has Used Pegasus Through Illegal Methods : Supreme Court [Court Room Exchange]

Mehal Jain

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