Govt hints it may file Pegasus response

NEW DELHI: 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 matter filed on August 16 which neither confirmed nor denied the use of the militarygrade spyware to hack phones of politicians, activists and journalists. The bench, headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, said it would consider passing some orders on the constitution of an expert committee.

But on Monday, solicitor general Tushar Mehta said the government is yet to take a final call on filing the second affidavit. “There is some difficulty regarding a call on filing the second affidavit. Please, consider accommodating me till Thursday or Monday,” he requested.

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. Accordingly, the matter was adjourned to September 13.

The row erupted on July 18 after an international investigative consortium reported that phones of Indian politicians, activists and journalists were among the 50,000 that were potentially targeted by Pegasus, Israeli company NSO Group’s phone hacking software.