Supreme Court To Give Verdict Today On Pegasus Snooping Row
NDTV
The judgment will be given at 10.30 am by a three-judge bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, Justice Surya Kant and Justice Hima Kohli.
The Supreme Court will take a call today on whether there will be a court-monitored investigation into the explosive Pegasus snooping row that dominated headlines earlier this year. The judgment will be given at 10.30 am by a three-judge bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, Justice Surya Kant and Justice Hima Kohli. After a detailed hearing in the case, the top court had said that it was in the process of forming an independent committee of experts to probe the matter.
Apart from a court-monitored investigation, the petitioners - who included former union minister Yashwant Sinha, CPM MP John Brittas, Supreme Court advocate ML Sharma, the Editors' Guild of India and individual journalists - had asked the court to order the government to produce details of the alleged unauthorised surveillance using the Pegasus software, built by the Israeli firm NSO Group.
The government, the petitioners said, should disclose the details of how it obtained licence for the spyware, used it directly or indirectly, and the list of people who were targeted.
The Centre had refused to reveal say whether the spyware was used or not and citing national security issues, told the court that it cannot file a detailed affidavit. It had, however, offered to form an independent committee of experts that could investigate the issue under the Supreme Court's supervision.
