Pegasus Snooping Case: Invocation of National Security by The State Does Not Render the Court a Mute Spectator, Says Supreme Court, Constitutes Independent Committee
(Judicial Quest News Network)
A three Judges Bench of Supreme Court of India on Wednesday appointed an expert technical committee overseen by a former Apex Court judge, Justice R.V. Raveendran to examine allegations that government of India used an Israeli spyware, Pegasus, to snoop on its own citizens.
The Bench Comprising of Chief Justice NV Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli said that there has been no Specific denial by Centre (about use of Pegasus).” Thus, we have no option but to accept the submissions of petitioner prima facie and thus we appoint an expert committee whose function will be overseen by the Supreme Court.
The argument of the National Security cannot be used to secure a free pass whenever a matter comes up for judicial review before the Supreme Court, the Apex court said on Wednesday in its judgement in the Pegasus snooping scandal.
Justice Raveendran would oversee the functioning of the technical committee and would be assisted by Alok Joshi, former IPS officer (1976 batch) and Dr. Sundeep Oberoi, Chairman, sub-Committee in (International Organisation of Standardisation/International Electro-Technical Commission/Joint Technical Committee).
The three members Technical Committee comprising of
i. Dr. Naveen Kumar Chaudhary, Professor (Cyber Security and Digital Forensics) and Dean, National Forensic Sciences University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
Dr. Chaudhary has over two decades of experience as an academician, cyber security enabler and cyber security expert. He specializes in cyber security policy, network vulnerability assessment and penetration
testing.
ii. Dr. Prabaharan P., Professor (School of Engineering), Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri, Kerala. He has two decades of experience in computer science and security areas. His areas of interest are malware
detection, critical infrastructural security, complex binary analysis, AI and machine learning. He has many publications in reputed journals.
iii. Dr. Ashwin Anil Gumaste, Institute Chair Associate Professor (Computer Science and Engineering), Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Maharashtra. He has been granted 20 US patents and has published over 150 papers and authored 3 books in his field. He has received several National awards including the Vikram Sarabhai Research Award (2012) and Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology (2018). He has also held the position of Visiting Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.
The court has asked the committee to investigate the matter expeditiously. The matter will be listed after 8 weeks.
The terms of reference of the Committee stipulated by the Apex Court are as follows:
The terms of reference of the Committee are as follows:
A. To enquire, investigate and determine:
i. Whether the Pegasus suite of spyware was used on phones or other devices of the citizens of India to access stored data, eavesdrop on conversations, intercept information and/or for any other purposes not explicitly stated herein?
ii. The details of the victims and/or persons affected by such a spyware attack.
iii. What steps/actions have been taken by the Respondent Union of India after reports were published in the year 2019 about hacking of WhatsApp accounts
of Indian citizens, using the Pegasus suite of spyware.
iv. Whether any Pegasus suite of spyware was acquired by
the Respondent Union of India, or any State Government, or any central or state agency for use against the citizens of India?
v. If any governmental agency has used the Pegasus suite of spyware on the citizens of this country, under what law, rule, guideline, protocol or lawful procedure was such deployment made?
vi. If any domestic entity/person has used the spyware on the citizens of this country, then is such a use authorised?
vii. Any other matter or aspect which may be connected, ancillary or incidental to the above terms of reference, which the Committee may deem fit and proper to investigate.
The court had reserved its order on 13, September saying it only wanted to know whether or not the Centre used the Pegasus spyware through illegal methods to allegedly snoop on citizens.
At this juncture, it would be appropriate to state that in this world of conflicts, it was an extremely uphill task to find and select experts who are free from prejudices, are independent and competent. Rather than relying upon any Government agencies or any, we have constituted the Committee and shortlisted expert members based on biodatas and information collected independently. Some of the candidates politely declined this assignment, while others had some conflict of interest. With us best intentions and efforts, we have shortlisted and chosen the most renowned experts available to be a part of the Committee.
The Court has further said in its order that in a democratic country
governed by the rule of law, indiscriminate spying on individuals cannot be allowed except with sufficient statutory safeguards, by following the procedure established by law under the Constitution.
The controversy of alleged illegal snooping of Citizens, Journalists, Activists had erupted on July 18, after the Wire and several other international publications published reports about the mobile numbers which were potential targets of the spyware service given by NSO company to various governments, including India.40 Indian Journalists, political leaders like Rahul Gandhi, election strategist Prashan Kishore, former ECI member Ashok Lasava etc. are reported to be in the list of targets, as per the Wire.
Several petitions were thereafter filed in the Apex Court seeking independent probe into the matter.
The petitions had been filed by several people including Advocate ML Sharma, Journalist N Ram and Sashi Kumar, CPI (M) Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas, five Pegasus targets, social activist and Editors Guild.
