Pegasus row: SC grants more time to Centre for filing response, fixes pleas for hearing on Sept 13

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana had issued a notice to the Centre on the pleas on August 17

The Supreme Court Tuesday granted more time to the Centre to decide on filing a further response to a batch of pleas seeking an independent probe into the alleged snooping of certain people in India through the use of Israeli spyware Pegasus and slated the matter for further hearing on September 13.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, submitted before the bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and A S Bopanna that due to some difficulties, the affidavit, sought by the court, could not be filed.

He asked the court to list the matter for hearing either on Thursday or Monday.

"There is some difficulty with the affidavit. We had filed one and you had enquired, if we want to file another one... some officers were not there," he submitted before the bench.

The bench pointed out that the Centre had already filed a short affidavit in the matter. Mehta responded that since the top court had issued notice in the matter, therefore a more detailed response would be filed.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing senior journalist N Ram, submitted that he does not have any objection to Mehta's request.

After a brief hearing in the matter, the bench ordered the matter be listed on Monday.

Last month, the court sought to know from the Centre if it wanted to file a detailed affidavit addressing the contentions of petitioners, whether government bought Pegasus or used it, or it wasn't used at all.

The Centre, for its part, said that to dispel any wrong narrative spread, it will constitute "a committee of experts in the field which will go into all aspects of the issue."

Mehta had then said the government does not want to file any additional affidavit on the Pegasus issue, as national security aspects are involved.

(With PTI inputs)