New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday appointed a three-member expert committee to probe the Pegasus surveillance scandal.
Delivering the judgment, a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli set up the committee, to be headed by retired judge Justice RV Raveendran. The SC asked the committee to examine the allegations thoroughly and expeditiously and place a report before the court.
The SC also pulled up the Centre for invoking the national security clause to defend itself.
“State cannot get free pass every time by raising national security concerns. No omnibus prohibition can be called against judicial review. Centre should have justified its stand here and not render the court a mute spectator,” the top court said.
“There has been no specific denial by Centre (on use of Pegasus). Thus we have no option but to accept the submissions of petitioner prima facie and thus we appoint an expert committee whose function will be overseen by the Supreme Court,” the SC said.
The SC said that in the era of information technology, it is important to safeguard the privacy of citizens.
“We live in the era of information. We must recognise while technology is important, it is important to safeguard right to privacy. Not only journalists etc but privacy is important for all citizens. There are restrictions on right to privacy but those restrictions have to stand constitutional scrutiny. In today’s world restriction on privacy is to prevent terrorism activity and can only be imposed when needed to protect national security,” the SC said.
The apex court was hearing 12 petitions in the matter, including those filed by the Editors Guild of India; journalists N Ram and Shashi Kumar, Pranjoy Guha Thakurta; Trinamool Congress leader Yashwant Sinha; and academic Jagdeep S Chhokar.
The controversial use of the Pegasus spyware, a flagship product of Israel’s NSO Group, to target thousands of people including more than a hundred in India, hit the headlines following media reports in July this year.
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