In News:
- The Supreme Court has granted additional time of four weeks, until June 20, to the three-member expert committee constituted to look into the Pegasus row.
- It said that 29 infected mobile phones are being examined for the spyware by the technical committee and the process should conclude in four weeks.
What’s in Today’s Article:
- The Pegasus snooping row – About Pegasus, snooping row, involvement of SC, committee constituted
- News Summary
About Pegasus Spyware
- Pegasus is a malware/spyware developed by Israel’s NSO Group.
- The spyware suite is designed to access any smartphone through zero-click vulnerabilities remotely.
- Once a phone is infiltrated, the spyware can access entire data on that particular phone.
- It also has real-time access to emails, texts, phone calls, as well as the camera and sound recording capabilities of the smartphone.
Snooping Row
- A global collaborative investigative project has discovered that Israeli spyware Pegasus was used to target thousands of people across the world.
- In India, at least 300 people are believed to have been targeted, including two serving Ministers in the current government, three Opposition leaders, one constitutional authority, several journalists and business persons.
- Allegations of snooping using military-grade spyware Pegasus prevented Parliament from functioning normally in August 2021.
- The Central Government had refused to disclose whether it had used Pegasus spyware by stating that it was a national security issue.
Involvement of Supreme Court
- The Pegasus row also reached the SC when the Editors Guild of India filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking direction for a probe by a special investigation team.
- In a judgment, the SC bench led by CJI NV Ramana stated that national security ground raised by the State cannot totally exclude judicial review.
- The SC emphasised the importance of free speech and press freedom and expressed concerns about unauthorised surveillance.
- Rejecting the Centre's defence, the Court said that mere invocation of national security can't give the State a free pass.
- The Court also rejected the Centre's proposal that it can form a technical committee by saying that an independent committee was required to ensure impartial probe.
Technical Committee Constituted
- The Supreme Court, in its order passed in October, 2021, constituted a technical committee under the oversight of Justice (retd) R.V. Raveendran.
- The committee was constituted to look into the allegations of widespread and targeted surveillance of politicians, journalists, activist etc using the Pegasus spyware.
- The committee divided the court-appointed task into two areas:
- One is regarding the inquiry itself.
- i.e., the fact-finding report regarding the reported use of Pegasus malware to target mobiles of Indian citizens.
- Second is regarding recommendations about the enhancement of existing laws and procedures related to surveillance and securing rights including privacy, cyber security, etc.
News Summary
- SC extended the time for submitting the report by the apex court-appointed technical committee to look into the Pegasus row, saying 29 mobile phones are being examined.
- The probe by the technical committee may conclude by the May end and then the supervisory judge would be making a report for the perusal of the bench.
Key Highlights
- Technical committee has submitted its interim report
- The interim report sought an extension of time till June 20, 2022 to complete the entire exercise and file a comprehensive report before the Supreme Court.
- Standard operating procedure for testing the ‘infected devices’ will be finalised
- SC said that the standard operating procedure for testing the infected devices will be finalised too.
- Twenty-nine mobile devices are being examined
- The apex court said that twenty-nine mobile devices are being examined.
- Once the technical committee submits a report to the supervisory judge, the judge will also add his comments.
