Supreme Court likely to appoint team next week to probe Pegasus spyware controversy

The Supreme Court is all set to order an independent probe next week into the allegations that the Pegasus spyware was used in India to spy on activists, dissenters, opposition leaders and journalists.

Chief Justice of India NV Ramana indicated as much in open court when he told senior advocate CU Singh that the court "would have passed orders this week" but some "members" approached for the task had refused citing "personal reasons".

"We would have passed orders this week but we are facing some problems...," the CJI told Singh, who is appearing for journalist N Ram, in the case. The CJI asked Singh to inform this development to all the petitioners in the case.


The central government had opposed any independent probe into the allegations and instead offered to set up a committee of technical experts, unrelated to it, to begin a fact-finding exercise. The report will be presented to court, SG Tushar Mehta had assured the court.

The petitioners in the case, which include the likes of Jagdeep Chokar, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Shashi Kumar and advocate Manoharlal Sharma, had instead sought a probe into the use of Pegasus in India by an independent special investigation team.

The SC seems to have rejected the government offer and is instead veering around to conducting an independent inquiry. The government had claimed that nothing was done outside the rule book for legal interception, rejecting the suggestion that anything illegal had been done. But the petitioners alleged since their fundamental right to life, dignity and privacy had been violated, the Centre can't wriggle out of its responsibility to get to the bottom of things.