New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Wednesday said as there is no clear stand taken by the Centre on the Pegasus spyware case, it has no option but to accept the submission in a petition seeking independent court-monitored probe, and appoint a three-member expert committee headed by RV Raveendran, former Supreme Court Judge to look into the allegations raised.
A three-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana and also comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli, passed the order on a batch of petitions alleging widespread and targeted surveillance of politicians, journalists, activist among others using the Pegasus spyware.
“The three-member committee will be headed by RV Raveendran, former Supreme Court Judge. Other members will be Alok Joshi and Sandeep Oberoi,” Ramana said.
The court on September 13 reserved its order in the case after hearing more than a dozen petitions.
“No clear stand taken by the respondent (Centre) in the issue,” the CJI said, and added that we are of the opinion to appoint an Expert Committee in the case.
Chief Justice Ramana said the committee will discover the truth. “Right to privacy violation needs to be examined. No clear stand by Union of India. There is serious concern of foreign agency involvement by surveilling Indians.
“We decline the request of Union of India (UOI) to dismiss this and allow their request to form a committee.
“It was an uphill task to choose independent members. We have selected this based on data gathered personally,” Ramana said, while pronouncing the judgment.
The Chief Justice set the date of next hearing eight weeks from now and said that the terms of reference is detailed in the order. The committee has been asked to expeditiously probe the matter.
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