2 journalists move SC, seek inquiry into Pegasus row

JOURNALISTS SAID THE GOVERNMENT HAS NOT CATEGORICALLY RULED OUT OBTAINING PEGASUS LICENCES TO CONDUCT SURVEILLANCE

NEW DELHI: Journalists N Ram and Sashi Kumar have approached the Supreme Court to seek an inquiry by a retired or sitting judge of the top court into the alleged surveillance of Indian citizens using Israeli Pegasus spyware and to identify the entities responsible for it.

In their petition, the two journalists said the alleged snooping “prima facie constitute an act of cyber-terrorism” and asked the court to view the snooping allegations with seriousness since it impacts the right to privacy and free speech protected under the Constitution.

The two journalists also said the government has not categorically ruled out obtaining Pegasus licences to conduct surveillance and sought a specific response from the Centre on this point. It also noted that no steps have been taken by the Centre to ensure a credible and independent investigation.

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On Monday, the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal was the first state to appoint a commission of inquiry comprising former Supreme Court judge, justice (retd) MB Lokur and retired chief justice of Calcutta high court, justice (retd) Jyotirmay Bhattacharya to inquire into the alleged snooping row.

This is the third petition to be filed in the Supreme Court to seek a probe into the controversy over Pegasus software that erupted last Sunday after an international investigative consortium reported that phone numbers of many Indian ministers, politicians, activists, businessmen and journalists were among the 50,000 numbers that were potentially targeted worldwide by the NSO Group’s phone hacking software.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) member in the Rajya Sabha John Brittas and lawyer ML Sharma filed the other two petitions. The three petitions have not been listed for a hearing or admitted by the top court yet.

The database, first obtained by France-based nonprofit Forbidden Stories, was shared with a consortium of media organisations in 10 countries. The Wire, which was given access to the list of potential targets, said it has so far verified the numbers of around 300 persons in India. To be sure, the presence of a number does not indicate the individual’s phone was hacked — just that it was of interest.

“Such mass surveillance using a military-grade spyware abridges several fundamental rights and appears to represent an attempt to infiltrate, attack and destabilize independent institutions that act as critical pillars of our democratic set-up,” the fresh petition filed by N Ram and Sashi Kumar through lawyer Shadan Farasat said.

It added that the alleged snooping has several “grave political and security ramifications, especially considering that the devices of government ministers, senior political figures and constitutional functionaries which may contain sensitive information have been targeted.”

The petition underlined that the alleged hacking of mobile phones using Pegasus spyware was a punishable offence under the Information Technology Act on the grounds that surveillance has been done bypassing the legal regime provided under the Telegraph Act, which provides for surveillance on grounds of public emergency or in the interest of public safety with the approval of the home secretary concerned of the central government or the states.