The hearing was held on Monday in the Supreme Court regarding the Pegasus espionage case. During the hearing, the central government made it clear that it was not going to file an affidavit in this matter. The government said that it is not a matter of public discussion. Therefore, the affidavit cannot be filed. But she has agreed to set up a panel to probe the allegations of espionage.
At the same time, Chief Justice Ramanna was not satisfied with this reply of the government and expressed displeasure and said that we have to know whether anyone can use spyware? Did the government use it? Was it done legally? If the government does not want to file the affidavit, then we will have to pass an interim order.
During the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the central government, said that various types of software are used by security and military agencies to investigate terrorist activities. If the government makes it public, then terrorists or anti-national forces will misuse it. It is feared that the terrorists will be saved from tracking by modifying it. Mehta said that the central government is ready to place all the facts regarding monitoring before an expert technical committee, which can give a report to the court.
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Supreme Court Chief Justice NV Ramanna slammed the central government on the Pegasus issue, saying that you are going back on the same point again and again. We want to know what the government was doing till now. We are not going towards issues of national interest. Our limited concern is about the people. The appointment of the committee is not an issue. The purpose of the affidavit is to let us know what you are doing.
The Supreme Court asked the government to mention the Pegasus case before the court if it reconsiders filing a fresh affidavit as it would take two to three days to pass an interim order.
