New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday said that if media reports are correct, then the allegation of Pegasus-related snooping are serious. The court also agreed to hear the petitions seeking an investigation into the snooping case on August 10 and has asked the parties to serve a copy of their plea to the government. The bench comprising of CJI NV Ramana and Justice Surya Kant was hearing a bunch of pleas filed by Editors Guild and senior journalists N Ram and Sashi Kumar and personalities like Professor Jagdeep Chokar.
The petitioners argued before the court that mass surveillance has been undertaken allegedly by the government using NSO spyware which is exclusively used by government intelligence agencies to fight terrorism. So now journalists, academicians, court officers etc have become terrorists, remarked Sr Adv Kapil Sibal appearing for N Ram."We have to ask the government if they have done it, where is the system set up," said Kapil Sibal appearing for the petitioners. He said that there is access to SMS, messages, WhatsApp, photos and videos.
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Referring to the Lok sabha reply, petitioners informed the court that the government had accepted the Pegasus snooping but has not taken any action. All we know is that phones are hacked but all other information regarding it can be given by the government only and hence investigation is required, argued the petitioners.
The bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justice Surya Kant, however, asked some questions to the senior counsel Kapil Sibal. “Before going into all that, we have certain questions. No doubt, the allegations are serious, if the reports are true,” the CJI observed and raised the issue of delay, saying the matter had come to light way back in 2019. Reports of snooping came to light in 2019. I do not know whether any efforts were made to get more information, CJI Ramana observed, adding that he did not want to say that it was an impediment. The top court said it was not going into the facts of each case and if some people claimed that their phones were intercepted then there is the Telegraph Act under which complaints can be filed. “I can explain. We do not have the access to many materials. The petitions have information about 10 cases of direct infiltration into phones,” Sibal said.
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CJI also questioned why FIRs were not lodged by the aggrieved petitioners earlier and raised the concern of only newspaper cuttings as the basis of all the pleas. CJI said that to order an enquiry some evidence is needed but only newspaper cuttings are there. The petitioners are all educated persons and could have done more hard work in finding material, said CJI. There was nobody representing the centre today and the court asked for presence on August 10 so that there is someone to accept notice on its behalf.
