AN INTERIM REPORT SUBMITTED IN SC ON PEGASUS SNOOPING

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Abhi Dhingra

The technical committee working under the Supreme court on the Pegasus snooping case submitted the report prior to the hearing of the case by the apex court on February 23.

The report is the final result of the research on the alleged misuse of the Israeli spyware Pegasus to spy on India.

The panel is headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice RV Raveendran who in their interim report told the court that the alleged snooping phones of political leaders, journalists,s, and lawyers are being investigated. 

The committee also includes Naveen Kumar Chaudhary, professor of Cyber Security and Digital Forensics, Prabharan P, professor at School of Engineering Amrita Vishwas Vidyapeeth, Kerela, and Ashwin Anil Gumaste, institute chair and associate professor of Computer Sciences in IIT Bombay.

The Supreme court constructed the panel after they got repeated reports of snooping of the prominent names through the spyware Pegasus.

The petition listed to the apex court highlighted the right to privacy and the petition also added that the spyware Pegasus is to be sold to governments and the agencies of the government as it is military based software.

In the last statement given by Supreme Court dated October 27, 2021, it said that privacy is not the singular concern of journalists or social activists. Every citizen of the country ought to be protected against their violation of privacy. The country is governed by the law and indiscriminate spying on any individual cannot be allowed except with sufficient statuary safeguards under the procedures established by law.

The order further said “ We make it clear that our effort is to uphold the constitutional aspirations and law according to the rule without been trapped in the political web. The court has also stayed away from the political ticket. However, the court has always tried to protect fundamental rights from any abuse.