On Tuesday, the Supreme Court of India approved the Centre’s request to adjourn the petition hearings for an independent probe in the government’s involvement in snooping on citizens with the help of Israeli based Pegasus spyware.
After Solicitor General Tushar Mehta presented before the court that he could not meet with the officials to discuss the issue, a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana postponed the hearing to 13 September.
A bench led by Chief Justice of India N V Ramana had earlier stated that the court will address the matter and decide on what action to be taken in future after the centre reiterated that the matter concerns national security importance and owing to this they cannot take out the details in a public affidavit. The government said all facets relating to the matter will be disclosed to a panel consisting of independent experts, who after the revelation can submit its report to the Court.
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In August the centre had documented a brief affidavit and “unequivocally” denied all accusations that were made by the petitioner, remarking that the government “will constitute a Committee of Experts in the field which will go into all aspects of the issue” in order “to dispel any wrong narrative spread by certain vested interests”.
The government in its affidavit had stated its position on the alleged Pegasus snooping, which was already clarified by IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in the Parliament.
“A bare perusal of the captioned petition and other connected petitions makes it clear that the same is based on conjectures and surmises or on other unsubstantiated media reports or incomplete or uncorroborated material,” the affidavit stated.
The apex court on 10 August had taken exception to “parallel proceedings and debates” that was going on social media platforms on the snooping controversy by some petitioners and remarked that discipline must be there and the petitioners must have “some faith in the system”.
A bunch of pleas have been filed in the SC including one submitted by the Editors Guild of India that sought an independent inquiry into her alleged Pegasus snooping matter.
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“As a responsible government, we are submitting that we will form a Committee of neutral experts, whose report will be placed before the Supreme Court… I repeat, it is not my case that I will not divulge anything. All will be revealed before the Committee… Let me do that before a Committee… Permit us to form a Committee… We will place its report before the Supreme Court itself,” Mr Mehta had presented an argument before the court on August 17.
Mr Mehta had told the court that the option to file another affidavit has been left to the government to decide.