File image. |Photo source: Shashi Shekhar Kashyap
The Supreme Court agreed on Tuesday (22 April 2025) to hear a petition for next week accusing Indian agencies of using Israeli military-grade spyware to steal a wide variety of politicians, activists and journalists.
Senior advocate Shyam Divan said in front of a judge led by Justice Surya Kant that the court must hear the technical committee’s report in detail to investigate allegations of illegal electronic surveillance, as well as former Supreme Court judge RV Raveendran, whose mission is to consider improvements in cybersecurity.
The petition appeared in the first half of March when it was scheduled to be heard on Tuesday.
However, the petition did not listen, and Justice Surya Kant sat on a special bench after lunch.
On March 7, Attorney General Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the coalition government, said the case would appear after more than two years of gap.
Petitioners include senior journalists N. Ram and Shashi Kumar, who conducted a fair investigation into the snooping allegations.
In October 2021, the Supreme Court formed a technical committee to investigate the reconnaissance allegations, while noting that “there is a broad consensus that unauthorized surveillance/accessing stored data from cell phones and other citizen devices will be illegal, offensive, and offensive, and problematic for reasons other than national security.
In August 2022, after carefully reading the committee’s confidential report, the judge led by then-Chief Justice NV Ramana (now retired) notified 29 mobile phones in the open court. The committee found malware in some of them, but could not confirm the existence of Pegasus.
The top court judge, then led by Chief Justice NV Ramana (now retired), also conveyed the committee’s observation that the coalition government did not “cooperate.”
Mr. Mehta replied that he did not recognize what was going on. “But if they [committee] Have asked “Would you be using specific malware” and we would say “We are not using it.” If they ask “what are you using, we probably didn’t say it”. He said it.
The records of secret placement include digital images of cell phones infected with spyware, reports from the Technical Committee and reports from Justice Raveendran.
Justice Raveendran recommended a balance between cybersecurity and personal privacy rights in the country to prevent unauthorized surveillance. A retired Supreme Court judge said private companies that resort to illegal surveillance should be sued. He also suggested that a special investigation agency be established to investigate cyber attacks and strengthen the country’s cybersecurity network.
Justice Raveendran suggested that the government should provide citizens with a mechanism to complain about surveillance and accusations of implanting malware in their personal devices.
publishing – April 22, 2025 at 5:18 pm IST
