West Bengal govt faces setback as SC stays its judicial inquiry into Pegasus snooping row

In a setback to the West Bengal government on Friday, the Supreme Court stayed its judicial inquiry into the Pegasus snooping controversy. On July 26, the Mamata Banerjee-led government appointed a Commission of Inquiry comprising ex-SC judge Madan Lokur and former Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Jyotirmay Bhattacharya under the Commission of Inquiry Act. It was tasked to investigate the facts and circumstances related to the purported illegal hacking of phones of various police officials, politicians, MLAs, journalists, activists and other judges. 

This came in the wake of reports suggesting that the CM's nephew Abhishek Banerjee and TMC poll strategist Prashant Kishor were potential targets of Pegasus. The bench comprising CJI NV Ramana, Surya Kant and Hima Kohli was hearing a plea filed by NGO Global Village Foundation against the state government's notification to constitute a judicial commission in this regard. During the previous hearing, senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi had given verbal assurance on the behalf of the WB government that the proceedings will be halted until the pendency of other pleas in the SC.

After Singhvi conveyed the Mamata Banerjee-led government's inability to stop the commission from proceeding ahead with the probe at a time when the SC has also ordered an inquiry, the bench ruled, "We understand the state's predicament. Issue notice to all parties. We stay proceedings." 

The Pegasus snooping row

The controversy came to the fore when French non-profit Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International accessed a leaked database of 50,000 phone numbers that were allegedly targeted by Pegasus. As per media reports, the Pegasus spyware targeted over 300 Indian mobile numbers including that of 40 journalists, businesspersons, one constitutional authority, three opposition leaders and two sitting Ministers in the Union government. The database also allegedly contained the numbers of activists who are accused and incarcerated in the Bhima Koregaon case.

On October 27, the apex court appointed a technical committee to probe these allegations. Maintaining that privacy is important for all citizens, the CJI affirmed that the restrictions can be imposed only to safeguard national security. Stressing that surveillance affects the rights of the people, he opined that this technology may have a chilling effect on the freedom of the press. 

The technical committee consists of three members- National Forensic Sciences University Dean Dr. Naveen Kumar Chaudhary, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham professor Dr. Prabhakaran P and IIT Bombay professor Dr. Ashwin Anil Gumaste. The functioning of this committee is being overseen by retired Supreme Court judge RV Raveendran and is being assisted by ex-IPS officer Alok Joshi and cyber security expert Dr. Sundeep Oberoi. The panel was directed to prepare the report after a thorough inquiry and place its report before the SC expeditiously.