File image.
| Photo Credit: Shashi Shekhar Kashyap
The Supreme Court on Tuesday (April 22, 2025) agreed to hear next week petitions alleging that the Indian establishment used Israeli military grade spyware to snoop on personalities across a spectrum of politicians, activists, and journalists.
Appearing before a Bench headed by Justice Surya Kant, senior advocate Shyam Divan said the court has to hear in detail the report of the technical committee established to look into the allegations of illegal electronic surveillance and that of former Supreme Court judge, Justice R.V. Raveendran, who was tasked to consider improvement in cyber security.
The petitions had come up last in the first half of the month of March, when it was scheduled to be heard on Tuesday.
However, the petitions did not come up for hearing, and Justice Surya Kant was sitting in a Special Bench post-lunch.
On March 7, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Union government, had said the case was coming up after a gap of over two years.
Petitioners included senior journalists N. Ram and Shashi Kumar who had sought a fair probe into the snooping allegations.
In October 2021, the top court had formed a technical committee to look into the snooping allegations while noting that there was a “broad consensus that unauthorised surveillance/accessing of stored data from the phones and other devices of citizens for reasons other than nation’s security would be illegal, objectionable and a matter of concern”.
In August 2022, after perusing the committee’s confidential report, a Bench headed by then Chief Justice N.V. Ramana (now retired) informed in open court that 29 mobile phones were examined. The committee had detected the presence of a malware in some of them, but could not confirm the presence of Pegasus.
The top court Bench, which was headed by then Chief Justice N.V. Ramana (now retired) had also conveyed the committee’s observation that the Union government had not been “cooperative”.
Mr. Mehta had responded by saying he was not personally aware of what had happened. “But if they [committee] had asked ‘whether you are using a particular malware’, we would have said ‘we are not using’. If they had asked ‘what you are using, we may not have said it’.” he had said.
The records that were confidentially placed before the top court consisted of digital images of phones examined for spyware infection, report of the technical committee and the report of Justice Raveendran.
Justice Raveendran had recommended striking a balance between the country’s cyber security and right to individual privacy against unauthorised surveillance. The retired Supreme Court judge has said private firms resorting to illegal surveillance ought to be prosecuted. He had also suggested the formation of a special investigation agency for investigating cyber-attacks and to strengthen the cyber security network of the country.
Justice Raveendran has recommended that the government should create a mechanism for the citizens to complain about surveillance and alleged implantation of malware in their personal devices.
Published – April 22, 2025 05:18 pm IST
