Govt may file 2nd affidavit, SG tells top court during Pegasus hearing

The Union government on Tuesday signalled a rethink of its previous stand against filing a detailed response in the Supreme Court on a clutch of petitions demanding a courtmonitored probe into the alleged surveillance of Indian citizens using Pegasus spyware. This came on a day the apex court was expected to pass orders on the constitution of a committee and other ancillary issues related to an independent inquiry.

On August 17, the Centre told the top court that it has nothing to add to its three-page affidavit on the Pegasus snooping matter which neither confirmed nor denied the use of the military grade spyware to hack phones of ministers, politicians, businessmen, activists and journalists. Following this, the bench, headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, said it would consider passing some orders on constitution of an expert committee at the next date of hearing.

But on Monday, solicitor general Tushar Mehta told the bench, which also included justices Surya Kant and AS Bopanna, that the government is yet to take a final call on filing the second affidavit, as suggested by the court earlier.

The SG requested adjourning the matter till Thursday or till next Monday .

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing in the petition filed by journalists N Ram and Sashi Kumar, said that there was no objection if the government is reconsidering its previous stand on filing a comprehensive affidavit.

Accordingly, the matter was adjourned to September 13.