Pegasus Snooping Row: Will Constitute a Committee of Experts Govt Tells Supreme Court.

(Judicial Quest News Network)

The Central government has filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court stating that it has resolved to constitute an expert committee which will examine all the issues pertaining to the alleged Pegasus snooping scandal.

A bench, headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, is set to hear a clutch of petitions demanding a court-monitored independent investigation into the alleged snooping later in the day.

The Union Government on Monday has filed an affidavit through the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology which Unequivocally denies any and all of the allegations made by the petitioners before the apex court and submitted that it will set up a committee of experts to examine all aspects of the alleged surveillance of Indian citizen with the Israel Pegasus spyware even as it cited “vested interest” behind the controversary.

The Affidavit points out that averments made in the petition cannot be the basis for invoking the writ jurisdiction, the Centre maintained that “nothing further needs to be done at the behest of the petitioners, more particularly when they have not made out any case.

The Affidavit points out that a bare perusal of the captioned petition and other connected petitions make it clear that the same are based on conjectures and surmises or on other unsubstantiated media reports or incomplete or uncorroborated material. It is submitted that the same cannot be the basis for invoking the writ jurisdiction of this Hon’ble

Court.

It asserts that the IT Minister, Ashwini Vaishnav, has already clarified the Government’s stand in Parliament.

Vaishnav had denied all over the top allegations of using Pegasus Spyware to snoop on opposition leaders Journalists etc.

He further said that the Amnesty report further clarifies that presence of a number in the list does not amount to snooping. He further informed the House that NSO itself has denied the allegations, claiming that the news reports are based on misleading interpretations of leaked data from basic information.

The basis of this report is that there is a consortium which has got access to a leaked database of 50,000 phone numbers. The allegation is that individuals linked to these phone numbers were being spied upon. However, the report says that.

During a previous hearing in the matter, the Court observed that while the allegations in news reports regarding the Pegasus controversy are serious in nature if true no efforts seem to have been made by the affected persons to file criminal complaints with the police before approaching the top court.

The Pegasus controversy erupted on July 15 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 including Rahul Gandhi Election Strategist Prashant Kishore former ECI member Ashok Lavas etc. are reported to be in the list of targets, as per the wire.

The wire published a startling report last week that an old mobile  umber associated with Justice Arun Mishra, Number of two Supreme Court officials and three Advocates were also included in the list of Pegasus targets.

The Supreme Court is hearing a batch of pleas, including the one filed by the Editors Guild of India, Seeking independent probe into the alleged Pegasus snooping mater.

Earlier an International Media Consortium had reported that 300 verified Indian mobile Phone numbers were on the list of the potential targets of surveillance.

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal submitted that “We do not want a government, which might have used Pegasus or its agency might have used it, to set up a committee on its own.