Pegasus row: Supreme Court to hear plea seeking probe next week

The plea said the alleged snooping represented an attempt by agencies and organisations to muzzle and chill the exercise of free speech and expression of dissent in India

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a plea by veteran journalists N Ram and Sashi Kumar seeking a direction for an independent probe by its sitting or retired judge into the alleged Pegasus snooping scandal.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal mentioned the matter before a bench presided over by Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justice Surya Kant for urgent hearing.

He claimed civil liberties of citizens, politicians, belonging to Opposition parties, journalists, and court staff have been put under surveillance. "It is an issue, which is making waves in India and the world over and this issue requires an urgent hearing," he said.

Senior advocate A M Singhvi claimed the court registry staff were not putting the matter for mentioning (request for urgent hearing).

Taking note of submissions, the bench said it may hear the matter next week.

Earlier, advocate M L Sharma and Rajya Sabha CPI-M MP John Brittas had also moved the apex court seeking a probe into the snooping scandal.

In their plea, the journalists claimed that the act of snooping amounted to "cyber-terrorism", having an obvious chilling effect on freedom of speech and expression by threatening invasion into the most core and private aspects of a person's life.

The plea sought a direction to the Centre to disclose if the government or any of its agencies obtained license for Pegasus spyware and used it, either directly or indirectly, to conduct surveillance in any manner.

An international media consortium has reported that over 300 verified Indian mobile phone numbers were on a list of potential targets for surveillance using Israeli firm NSO's Pegasus spyware.