The Supreme Court on Thursday will hear petitions filed by senior journalists N. Ram and Shashi Kumar, and separate petitions filed by Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas and advocate M.L. Sharma seeking a court-monitored probe into the Pegasus case.
N. Ram and Sashi Kumar on Tuesday had filed a plea in the Supreme Court for an independent probe headed by a former or sitting top court judge into the issue.
The petitioners also sought direction to the Centre to disclose if the government or any of its agencies have obtained licence(s) for Pegasus spyware and/or used/employed it, either directly or indirectly, to conduct surveillance in any manner whatsoever.
The petitioners stated that such targeted surveillance using weapons grade Pegasus software violates Article 21, 19 and 14 of the Constitution of India, as it breaches the right to privacy and the right to freedom of speech and expression.
The present surveillance is also in complete derogation of the Telegraph Act, 1885 and the Information Technology Act, 2000 and as such is completely illegal and a criminal act, it added
The plea further stated that such targeted surveillance violates the right to privacy, which is the constitutional core of human dignity and is protected under Article 21, 19, 14, 25, 28, the Preamble and Part III of the Constitution according to the landmark judgment of a nine-judge bench of this Court in K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India.
The right to privacy extends to the use and control over one’s mobile phone, including but not limited to both oral conversations and messages, and any interception by means of tapping/hacking is a breach of privacy and an infraction of Article 21 of the Constitution, the plea said.
The conscious targeting of politically engaged persons such as journalists, doctors, lawyers, civil society activists, government ministers, Opposition politicians and constitutional functionaries for surveillance seriously compromises the effective exercise of the fundamental right to free speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a), the plea added.
The plea also stated that the government response does not provide any clarity whatsoever on how such mass surveillance using military grade software was carried out with such impunity. This is clearly illegal and a serious abridgment of fundamental rights, not to mention a criminal offence, the plea said.
The petitioners alleged that no investigation into these extremely serious allegations has been initiated by the respondents, despite the extremely grave ramifications of such a targeted attack using weapons-grade spyware.
It is essential to initiate a thorough, independent and effective investigation to analyse the source, method and actors involved in the Pegasus spyware attack, which has had a direct and demonstrable impact on the exercise of critical fundamental rights under Articles 14, 19 and 21 across the territory of India, it added
On 25 July Rajya Sabha member John Brittas had filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking a court-monitored probe into reports of alleged snooping of activists, politicians, journalists and constitutional functionaries using Israeli spyware Pegasus.
The parliamentarian said that the recent Pegasus snooping allegations as reported by a website on 19 July are causing huge apprehensions and great agony for the citizens of India, as such snooping violate citizen’s freedom of speech under Article-19 (1) (a) as well as his/her personal liberty under Article-21.
On 22 July, advocate M.L. Sharma had filed a petition in Supreme court seeking a court-monitored probe by a Special Investigation Team into the reports of alleged snooping by government agencies using Israeli spyware Pegasus over journalists, activists, politicians and others. The plea further sought to declare buying of Pegasus software for snooping illegal and unconstitutional.
The Opposition is all set to approach the Supreme Court seeking an independent probe into the Pegasus snooping issue. “Pegasus issue is a very serious security concern for the nation. The opposition is planning to approach the Supreme Court for unbiased and fair investigations in the Pegasus snooping case,” sources told ANI. The move comes soon after the BJP levelled serious allegations against the opposition parties that they were not allowing the Parliament to function.
“The opposition parties are responsible for not allowing both Houses of Parliament to transact any business. The disruption in Parliament has resulted in a loss of over Rs 133 crore to taxpayers’ money,” the BJP had alleged.
Many opposition parties have decided to approach the apex court, instead of raising the Pegasus issue in the Parliament during the ongoing Monsoon Session. Opposition parties have decided to change their agenda in Parliament from Monday.
WITH ANI INPUTS