The Supreme Court on Tuesday deferred hearing in the Pegasus case after an urgent request from Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the government.
A three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana was scheduled to hear the case on February 23, primarily on the point of an interim report submitted by the court's technical committee examining allegations of the government using the Israeli military-grade software to spy on citizens.
Appearing before Chief Justice N.V. Ramana, the top law officer urged the court to adjourn the hearing to February 25.
Mr. Mehta said he was "on his legs" before another Bench of the court led by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar in a batch of petitions challenging various provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The Solicitor-General said there was a possibility that he could even be starting his submissions before Justice Khanwilkar's Bench in the next few hours.
"Alright. Please inform the others," Chief Justice Ramana told Mr. Mehta.
The Pegasus case was listed for hearing on February 23 almost four months after the court set up the technical committee monitored by former Supreme Court judge, Justice R.V. Raveendran, on October 27 last year in a 46-page order. This committee has submitted an interim report to the court.
The 12 Pegasus petitions, including one by senior journalists N. Ram and Sashi Kumar, were listed before a three-judge Bench of the CJI, Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli.
The court may also take up an application filed by advocate M.L. Sharma over allegations in a recent New York Times report that India bought the Pegasus spyware from Israel.
News reports had said a cross-section of people, from journalists, activists, parliamentarians, government officials, lawyers and even court staffers, were targeted using Pegasus.
The court had tasked the technical committee to “enquire, investigate and determine” 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”.
The other questions for the committee included whether Pegasus was used by the Centre or State or any of its agencies against its own citizens, whether it was authorised and under what law or procedure.
The Supreme Court had wanted the committee to dive deep into the first public signs of the alleged use of the spyware years ago.
The court had wanted the committee to dig up the steps taken by the government “after reports were published in the year 2019 about hacking of WhatsApp accounts of Indian citizens, using the Pegasus suite of spyware.”
The court also wanted the committee to use its expertise to test the existing surveillance laws and procedures to see how much they value and protect citizens’ privacy.
The court had asked the committee to also suggest means to prevent State and non-State players from invading the fundamental right of privacy of citizens through illegal surveillance mounted on them. It had urged the Justice Raveendran panel to come up with suggestions for enhancing and improving the cyber security of the nation and its assets.
