New Delhi (SunstarTV Bureau): Chief Justice of India (CJI) N.V Ramana told senior advocate CU Singh in the open court that the Supreme Court will pass an order in the Pegasus case next week. Supreme Court says Pegasus is ready to set up a committee to investigate Snoop gate. The CJI informed senior advisor CU Singh. Singh is one of the lawyers appearing in the Pegasus case. CJI N. V Ramana says that the order of the Supreme Court can come any time in next week.
Chief Justice N.V Ramana told senior advocate CU Singh in the open court during the hearing of a case that the Supreme Court will pass an order in the Pegasus case in next week. The CJI further said that some experts have expressed their inability to attend due to personal reasons. CJI NV Ramana said that some technical experts have been requested by the court to be part of the technical expert committee. He is personally expressing difficulty in refusing to be a part of the team hence the formation of technical expert committee is taking time. The CJI said that we will be able to finalize the technical expert team members by next week and place the order.
Special committee will investigate:
During the last hearing of the case in the Supreme Court, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that the government does not want to sensationalize the issue. Protecting the privacy of citizens is the priority of the government but national security cannot be harmed. If we say that we are using any particular software or not, then it will be to give an opportunity to the terrorists to get the bite of technology. We cannot make such information public through an affidavit. Let it be investigated by a specialty committee. The committee will submit its report to the court.
Center had refused to file affidavit:
A bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana said the order which was earlier to be pronounced, will now be pronounced next week. The Supreme Court had reserved its order on September 13, saying it only wanted to know whether the Center has used Pegasus spyware illegally to allegedly spy on citizens. The Center had categorically refused to file an affidavit citing national security on petitions seeking an independent probe into the espionage case.
The petitions seeking an independent investigation relate to reports of government agencies spying on eminent citizens, politicians and writers using spyware Pegasus from the Israeli firm NSO. An international media association had claimed that over 300 verified Indian mobile phone numbers were being monitored using Pegasus spyware.
