Pegasus row: Won't file detailed affidavit, Centre tells Supreme Court

Supreme Court reserves order on interim directions on Pegasus snooping case

The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its order on interim directions to be issued on a batch of petitions for independent probe into use of Pegasus Spyware as the Union government refused to file a detailed affidavit in the matter.

A bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that he has two-three days time to re-think the stand by the Centre.

Mehta, at the outset, said the government, after having considered the issue, was of the view that use of a particular software can't be debated by filing an affidavit as it involved question of national security and may alert a potential terrorist.

Read | 'Govt not divulging info to SC proves Pegasus was used'

Maintaining that the government has nothing to hide, he reiterated its previous stand that a committee of domain experts, unconnected to the government, may be asked to examine the matter.

"Whether a particular software was used or not can't be a subject matter of affidavit, it has its own pitfalls," he said.

The court, however, said that it had already clarified that it does not want government to disclose anything which compromises national security.

"We were only expecting a limited affidavit since there are petitioners before us who say their rights have been infringe...you had to say whether it was done lawfully or unlawfully," the bench said.

The court cited a statement by the Minister concerned before Parliament. "Had an affidavit been filed, we would have known where we stand on the subject," it pointed out.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for journalist N Ram, submitted that it is unbelievable that the government said it would not tell the court about the use of spyware.

"Government says filing an affidavit is detrimental to national security but it is in fact detrimental to the process of law. It has already accepted use of Spyware in Parliament," he said.

Senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for another petitioner asked the court to direct Cabinet Secretary to file a disclosure affidavit as the government should be concerned if an external agency used the Spyware and if it was by government agency itself, then it was absolutely unconstitutional.

Representing another petitioner, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi says the court should itself constitute a committee of experts to examine the matter. Senior advocate Meenakshi Arora demanded setting up an SIT.

Senior counsel Colin Gonsalves said a retired or sitting judge of the Supreme Court should head the probe, and the government, which is a wrongdoer, can't be relied upon with it. He also claimed that the government has been using these malwares in a widespread manner.

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