New Delhi [India], April 29 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday said a country possessing spyware for security purposes is not wrong, but using it against a civil society person, then it will be looked at.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh said, “What’s wrong if a country is using spyware? To have spyware is not wrong; it is against whom you are using it that is the question. You can’t sacrifice the security of the nation.”
The apex court’s remarks came as senior advocate Dinesh Dwivedi (appearing for some petitioners) told the bench that the basic issue in the case was whether the government had the Pegasus spyware and was using it.
Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, said, “Terrorists cannot claim privacy rights.”
To this, the bench added, “A civil individual who has the right to privacy will be protected under the Constitution.”
The apex court was hearing a batch of pleas seeking an inquiry into the allegations of the government allegedly using Israeli software Pegasus for snooping on journalists, judges, activists, politicians and others.
The top court adjourned the top court till July 30, 2025, allowing the petitioners to place on record a judgement pronounced by a court in the United States of America in a case filed by WhatsApp against Pegasus.
Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, said he wanted to place before the bench a judgement of the US District Court, where they have given a finding that India is one of the countries where there was a hack.
Sibal asked the bench to order the release of the report of the Justice Raveendran Committee to the affected individuals, redacting portions which might be sensitive.
Senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for another petitioner, said the report should be disclosed without any redaction and that we follow a system of open court.
The bench said that any report touching on the security and sovereignty of the country will not be disclosed but affected individuals can be informed of the report.
“Yes, individual apprehension must be addressed but it cannot be made a document for discussion on the streets,” said the bench.
The top court had constituted a technical committee and an overseeing committee on the alleged use of Pegasus spyware to snoop on individuals.
The apex court had appointed a committee, headed by a former top court judge, to look into the allegations of Pegasus’s snooping.
The committee was headed by Justice (retd.) Raveendran, who was tasked with overseeing the functioning of the technical committee and assisted by Alok Joshi, former IPS officer and Dr. Sundeep Oberoi, Chairman, Sub Committee in (International Organisation of Standardisation/International Electro-Technical Commission/Joint Technical Committee).
The three members of the technical committee consisted of Dr Naveen Kumar Chaudhary, Professor (Cyber Security and Digital Forensics) and Dean, National Forensic Sciences University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat; Dr Prabaharan P, Professor (School of Engineering), Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri, Kerala; and Dr Ashwin Anil Gumaste, Institute Chair Associate Professor (Computer Science and Engineering), Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Maharashtra.
In its report, the committee had concluded that the spyware was not found in the 29 mobile phones examined by it, but malware was found in five mobile phones.
The three-member technical committee which stated that malware was found in five out of 29 mobile phones but there is no conclusive proof of Pegasus spyware.
The technical committee and overseeing committee had informed the bench that the government of India did not cooperate in its probe.
Reports contain information about malware, information of public research material, and material extracted from private mobile instruments, which may contain confidential information, the Committee had said.
The top court had said that in a democratic country governed by the rule of law, “indiscriminate spying on individuals cannot be allowed” and ordered the three-member committee, headed by former top court judge RV Raveendran.
Several pleas were filed before the top court on the snooping row by senior journalists N Ram, and Sashi Kumar, Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas of the Communist Marxist Party of India (Marxist) and advocate ML Sharma, former Union minister Yashwant Sinha, and RSS ideologue KN Govindacharya.
Journalists Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, SNM Abdi, Prem Shankar Jha, Rupesh Kumar Singh and Ipsa Shatakshi, who are reported to be on the potential list of snoop targets of Pegasus spyware, had also approached the top court along with The Editors Guild of India (EGI), among others.
The pleas had sought an inquiry headed by a sitting or retired judge of the top court to investigate the alleged snooping.
The petition had said that the targeted surveillance using military-grade spyware is an unacceptable violation of the right to privacy, which has been held to be a fundamental right under Articles 14, 19 and 21 by the Supreme Court in the KS Puttaswamy case. (ANI)
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