Pegasus Spyware Row: 5 Journalists on Pegasus List Move Apex Court Seeking a Direction to Centre to Disclose Details

(Judicial Quest News Network)

Five journalists who are reported to be in the potential list of snoop targets have knocks the Apex Court’s door contending that the unauthorized use of surveillance by government agencies have violated their fundamental rights guaranteed in Article 14,19 of Constitution of India.

The petition, filed jointly by Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, SNM Abedi, Prem Shanker Jha, Rupesh Kumar Singh and Ipsa Shataksi, has demanded an unequivocal and adduce before the top court all documents relating to authorising its use and investigation conducted into the alleged surveillance.

The petitioners demand that to put in place a judicial oversight mechanism to deal with any complaints on illegal breaches of privacy and hacking and punish all government officials responsible for such breaches.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana, will on August,5 consider a clutch of three other petitions that have demanded a court-monitored investigation into the alleged snooping of Indian Citizens using Pegasus and to identify the entities responsible for this.

Earlier three other petitions were filed in the same matter.

One petition filed by Senior Journalists N.Ram and Sashi Kumar  seeking independent probe headed by a retired or sitting Supreme Court Judge.

This latest petition filed by the 5 Journalists asked the court to direct the government to produce records or documents to show that it had in any way authorised the snooping of private citizens, journalists, activists and even its own ministers.

This petition is filed by the personally aggrieved parties. The petitioner argue that the unauthorised surveillance through such sophisticated software will create a “chilling effect” on the fundamental rights to free speech, constitute a blatant violation of fundamental right of privacy and will deter informants and whistle-blowers from coming forward and bringing to light wrongdoing at various levels of government and as such have a detrimental effect on transparency in governance all across India.

It is highlighted in the petition that On July 29, 2021, France’s national cybersecurity agency, ANSSI confirmed the presence of Pegasus spyware on the phones of two journalists from the country’s online investigative journal Media part, becoming the first official government agency to confirm the cyber-attacks using Pegasus.

While the Petitioner has no idea who is behind the Pegasus malware infection on his phone- the aforesaid stance taken by senior government functionaries has meant that the Petitioner is left in a position where his most basic fundamental rights, i.e., his right to life, his right to privacy and his right to free speech have clearly been curtailed in a completely illegal manner and far from investigating how this happened, the very Government that is meant to protect these rights refuses to issue a categorical statement to the effect that that the Union of India and/or its agencies have never purchased/licensed the Pegasus malware or even that they have never used it against journalists, advocates and human rights activists in India. In this context, the Petitioner has been left with no option but to approach this Hon’ble Court to ensure that no citizen of India is ever again put through what the Petitioner has been put through and to ensure that our Fundamental Rights remain sacrosanct.

The petition is filed through the Advocate-on-Record Prateek Chadha seeks the following relief

i. Declare that the installation and/or use of malware or

spyware such as Pegasus is illegal and unconstitutional and

is ultra vires Part III of the Constitution;

ii. Issue a direction, order or writ, including writ in the nature

of mandamus directing the Respondents to produce and

disclose to this Hon’ble Court and the Petitionerall materials

and documents with respect to all investigation,

authorisation, and/or order(s) pertaining to the use of

Pegasus on the Petitioner;

iii. Issue a direction, order or writ, including writ in the nature

of mandamus directing the Respondents to take suitable

steps to protect Indian citizens from the use of

cyberweapons/malware such as Pegasus;

iv. Issue a direction, order or writ, including writ in the nature.

On July, 18 The Wire and many other international media houses had published reports about mobile numbers which were potential targets of the spyware service given by NSO company to various governments, including India.