Pegasus snoopgate: Chidambaram hails SC order; says 'Centre's casuistry exposed'

Hailing the Supreme Court order on the Pegasus snooping, former Union Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday, said that the Centre's casual reasoning on the allegations had been exposed by the SC. He added that basis of the inquiry is that the Israeli spyware was acquired by the Centre and it was used to spy on citizens. The SC formed a 3-member technical committee to probe the Pegasus snoopgate allegations.

Chidambaram: 'Centre's casuistry exploded by SC order'

SC order on Pegasus row

On Wednesday the SC bench of of CJI NV Ramana, Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli constituted a technical committee comprising of Dr. Naveen Kumar Chaudhary,  Dr. Prabhakaran and Dr. Ashwin Anil Gumaste to probe into the spying allegations. The committee will be overseen by retired SC judge RV Raveendran and will be assisted by ex-IPS officer Alok Joshi and cyber security expert Dr. Sundeep Oberoi. The panel has been directed to prepare the report and place it before the SC expeditiously. Next hearing has been scheduled in 8 weeks.

As per the order, the committee has been tasked to investigate if Pegasus spyware was used on phones or other devices of Indians, details of victims, steps taken by Centre in 2019 after reports of Whatsapp hacking, inquire if Centre, state govt or any govt agency acquired Pegasus and if any domestic entity/person used the spyware on citizens and whether this use was authorised. The committee has also been told to advise on amendments to existing laws for securing privacy, improving cyber security, establish a mechanism for citizens to raise grievances of illegal snooping and any ad­hoc arrangement by SC to protect citizens' rights. Both Opposition and BJP have hailed the order, terming it a 'victory'. 

The CJI observed, "The state cannot get a free pass every time by raising national security concerns. No omnibus prohibition can be called against judicial review. This court gave ample time to Centre to disclose all information regarding the pegasus attack since 2019. The Centre should have justified its stand here and not render the court a mute spectator." Centre had refused to file a detailed affidavit on the pleas and stated that whether a particular software was used or not is not a matter for public discussion. It also offered to constitute its own panel of domain experts to probe into allegations, which has been turned down by SC.

What is the Pegasus snoopgate?

In July, French non-profit Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International accessed a leaked database of 50,000 phone numbers that were allegedly targeted by Pegasus. A report by sixteen media houses claimed that of the 50,000 numbers, 300 verified Indian mobile telephone numbers were allegedly spied upon using Israeli surveillance technology firm Pegasus - which only has 36 vetted governments as its clients. As per a 'leaked' database, numbers of those allegedly spied upon include over 40 journalists, three major opposition figures, one constitutional authority, two serving cabinet ministers, current and former heads, and officials of security organizations and businessmen. The target also includes the eight activists currently accused of the Bhima Koregaon case. The report claimed that the leaked numbers mainly belong to ten countries - India, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.