Pegasus: Petition filed in Supreme Court seeking a probe

A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking a probe into the Pegasus snooping charges in absence of parliamentary scrutiny of the charges. The petition demanded a probe by a Special Investigation Team to establish if the government had used the software to spy on its own citizens. The PIL claimed that any such snooping for alleged "vested political motives" was violative of the citizens' right to privacy.

The petitioner demanded the prosecution of those responsible for the snooping under various sections of the Official Secrets Act and the Information Technology Act.

A series of articles in the international media that have been reproduced in a section of Indian media allege that the Indian government snooped on a wide array of political and judicial figures and a section of journalists. Advocate Manoharlal Sharma of the coal block allocation case fame filed the petition. Sharma is known for his penchant for filing petitions on the issues of the day with mixed success.


His biggest success was in the coal block allocation case when a bench led by former CJI RM Lodha cancelled en masse several coal blocks allotted during the tenure of former PM Singh over illegalities in allotment.

Sharma claimed that he had filed a complaint in the police station on the issue, but it was yet to be converted into an FIR.

The fact that ministers had refused to answer queries on the issue on the floor of the House, he said, was an admission that there was a serious infraction of the rights of citizens.