Pegasus spyware case: Supreme Court to declare its decision tomorrow

Israel-Tomorrow, on Wednesday, Supreme Court will declare its decision on the Pegasus spyware case that rocked the world over unauthorized surveillance on subjects using their mobile phones. The judgement would be announced in a batch of petitions that sought probing by court into the spying through Pegasus software made by Israeli company NSO group.

On September 13, the apex court had reserved its decision on the matter. A team was formed of experts last month by Supreme Court that would look into the matter. Chief Justice of India Ramana had said that decisions by experts were delayed due to personal reasons. The central government has “unequivocally” denied allegations regarding the Pegasus spying.

It said on August 15 in a brief affidavit to the court, nevertheless, “with a view to dispelling any wrong narrative spread by certain vested interests and with an object of examining the issues raised”, it would set up “a Committee of Experts in the field which will go into all aspects of the issue”.

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But petitioners had pointed out that in affidavit Centre failed to accept or deny if it had purchased the spyware. When asked about any additional affidavit by court, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for the Centre said that the issue was fraught with “questions of national security, and hence it did not want to put details in a public affidavit to be filed in court and make it a matter of public debate”.

Reserving its order, the Supreme Court bench had said, “We are…not interested in any manner or in any way to know the issues which are concerned about the security or the defence or any other national interest issue. We are only concerned, in the face of allegations that some software was used against some particular citizens, journalists, lawyers, etc, to know whether this software has been used by the government, by any method other than permissible under the law.”